The Future Mrs Austin Moon Is Ally! Wait, WHAT!
by AusllyxxRauraForever
Summary: "You're getting married!" my mom tells me. I know, I know. This doesn't sound right. It should be "We're getting married!" but they're not. It's me that's getting married. You heard me correctly. I'm getting married. Once I turn a certain age, my parents are forcing me into marriage. With who, you ask? Austin. Monica. Moon. My collab 'fic with Princess-Girl12! Check her out!
1. Chapter 1

"You have to become friends before you become something more." — Anonymous

* * *

"You're getting married!" my mom tells me excitedly, jumping up and down in her seat.

I choke on my cake. It wasn't the kind of way where she couldn't believe her ears. She was telling me this. I know, I know. This doesn't sound right. It should be "We're getting married!" but they're not. They're already married.

It's me that's getting married.

You heard me correctly. I'm getting married. Not right away, of course. I'm only seventeen. But once I turn a certain age, my parents are forcing me into marriage. With who, you ask? You wouldn't believe it if I screamed it into your ear. You'd think it was a joke. Oh, I never told you who, did I?

Austin. Monica. Moon.

The hate of my life. Not the love of my life, no. The hate of my life. I hate him with a freaking passion. I regret the day we ever walked into each other's lives. I'm probably confusing you so much so let me back up a little bit...

I'm trying for my driver's license today! I'm so excited! Nothing could ruin this day! I tried for it last year when I turned sixteen, but I was so nervous that I almost crashed the car. I decided to wait until I was seventeen before I could try again. So a year ago, today, I tried for my license. Now I'm going to try again.

I push the button on my alarm clock to make it be quiet. I stand up and run to my closet. I throw on my usual outfit.

A red shirt with a sleeveless, jean over jacket; a jean skirt to match that; and my signature, brown ankle boots. I style my hair quickly, brush my teeth quickly, then I remember something. I forgot to take a shower this morning... I spray a few extra sprays of my perfume to mask that fact. I skip down the stairs, humming to myself with a bright smile on my face.

"Well, someone's excited about trying for their license today," my mom says, smiling also and handing me a plate with a few strips of bacon.

"Yeah, I can't wait!" I exclaim as I cram the bacon down my throat. I am so ready to go to school so I can get that out of the way and try for my license! Luckily, my mom ate before I came down so as soon as I finished, we left out the door.

My mom tells me to drive today and I gladly oblige. I sit down in the driver's seat and turn the car on. I ease out of the driveway and make sure to mind the speed limit. I climb out of the car when I get to school and hug my mom.

"Bye, Mom!" I say, running toward the school building. I slow my pace as I see something that could ruin this day. Two somethings actually.

Austin Moon and Dallas Centineo.

Austin is the boy who hates me. I hate him too. We've known each other all of our lives and we still don't like each other. Not. One. Bit. See, our parents are the best of friends and as soon as we were able to walk and talk, they introduced us to each other. Okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration. A few years after we were able to walk and talk, they introduced us to each other. We were about six years old. And we didn't get off to a good start...

_"Ally, I have someone who I'd like you to meet," my mom said, entering my room. Even though I wasn't looking at her, I could tell by the way she was speaking that she had a big smile on her face. I turned to face her, stopping my sipping of my grape juice box. "This is Austin. Austin, this is Ally," she introduced us happily. I waved at him but he just stared at me, like I was some sort of freak. "Well, I'll leave you two to get to know each other." He walked over to me and took my juice box from me, beginning to suck it dry._

_"Hey! That was my juice box!" I exclaimed._

_"Well, it's mine now," he told me, taking a long sip._

_"Give it back!" I yelled, jumping up. I snatched it from him but he snatched it back. We took it from each other a bunch of times before I finally just jumped on him. I punched his chest as many times as I could, as hard as I could but he didn't seem to be feeling any pain... at first. He grabbed my hair and pulled it. "Ow!" I screamed. I hit his chest even harder._

_"Ow!" he finally exclaimed. "Stop it! I'm gonna tell on you! Mom!" My eyes widened._

_"No! Don't tell your mom! Please don't tell your mom!" I whisper-yelled at him._

_"Why not?" he asked._

_"Because I've never gotten in trouble before and I don't wanna start now," I told him. He pushed me off of him and stood up._

_"Fine. I won't tell," he said. He picked up my juice box which had fallen on the floor and started drinking it again. "But you owe me," he added._

Ever since then, he's paraded around and acted like I still owe him. I've done plenty of things for him but he just doesn't think they were enough. I guess not being in trouble is more important to me than having my dignity. I still do everything for him just so he won't tell on me for something that happened eleven years ago!

Dallas is my ex-boyfriend. We broke up for one reason: he was too clingy. We broke up four months ago and he still acts like we're dating. The day after I broke up with him, he walked up to me during school and told me he loved me and tried to kiss me! I almost murdered him right there in the hallway. He stills continues to act as if we're still dating though. It's crazy!

Oh, no. Here comes Something Number One…

"Hey," he says to me casually.

"What do you want now?" I ask, beginning my walk to class. As I expected, he follows right behind me.

"I left my lunch money at home," he tells me.

"Yeah? So?" I ask.

"So… I need you to give me yours. I'm a growing boy," he insists. I huff and pull my money out of my pocket, dropping it into his outstretched hand. "Awww, thanks, bestie, I knew I could count on you."

As he walks away, I see a ten dollar bill poking out of his book bag pocket. "Yeah, well, I wasn't gonna eat anyway! I need an empty stomach so I'll have nothing to throw up if I get nervous before my driving test!" I shout after him.

He stops walking abruptly and turns around. He walks back over to me. "You're trying for your license today?" he asks.

Oh, shoot. "No. Of course not. I meant to say… my sister's driving test."

"Allyson… your sister got her license years ago. Plus, she moved out and you two haven't talked much since so why would you be going with her to get her license?"

Shoot! "I meant… um… my… brother?"

Austin rolls his eyes. "You don't have a brother."

I don't say anything for a moment. "We adopted him yesterday!" I shout then I break into a full run for my first period. As I run into building three, my head collides with someone's chest.

"Oh, my God, are you okay?!" a familiar voice asks me as I fall to the ground, my books going every which way.

"Yeah, I'm…" I trail off as I look into the person's eyes.

Something Number Two.

"I'm fine," I spit. I gather my things quickly and start off for first period again. As soon as I get to the door, the bell rings and thankfully, Dallas has to go to class. I sit down and wait for the teacher to begin the lesson.

After school, Dallas catches up to me as I'm walking out to the parking lot. "Hey, baby, how was your day at school? Do you want me to carry your books for you?"

"Don't call me 'baby'; my day was fine; and no, I may be a girl but I am strong enough to carry my own books," I say with a roll of my eyes.

"No, I didn't mean it like that, I promise!" he exclaims.

"Goodbye, Dallas," I say as I spot my mom's car. I walk toward it.

"I love you!" he calls behind me.

"Good for you," I mutter.

I see that my mom is in the passenger seat so I climb into the driver's seat and notice something in the rear view mirror. Make that someone. There's someone in the backseat. I turn around and see Austin.

"Austin's going to ride with you to see how well you drive with him in the car since you'll be riding with him a lot more from now on," my mom says. She sneaks a side-glance at me and stifles a giggle.

"What's so funny about riding with… him?" I ask her.

"Oh… don't worry about it right now," she says with a straight face. "Just go to the D.M.V. so you can try for your license."

* * *

"Well done, Ally. I'm glad you got your license," Austin says as we walk to the waiting area for people waiting for people to get done taking their driving test or the people taking the test so that they can get their permit.

"Why are you glad?" I ask.

"Because you get to take me anywhere I want you to until I get my license," he explains with a smirk.

I sigh. "You've got to be kidding me," I groan. The excitement of getting my license returns as I see my mom's anticipating face.

"So?!" she asks, jumping up.

"I got my license!" I exclaim. She hugs me and we hop around in a circle.

"Well, let's go celebrate!" she exclaims. "Oh, should I bake you a cake that looks like a steering wheel? I'm going to bake you a cake that looks like a steering wheel!" She smiles brightly.

* * *

Austin and I sit on my bed in my room staring at each other.

"I'm not driving you anywhere," I tell him.

"Yes, you are," he says.

"No, I'm not," I say firmly.

"Yes, you are," he repeats.

"I hate you," I say.

He grins mischievously. "But I love you, Ally."

"Ugh," I say.

"You love me. Just admit it. It's not that hard. I'm in love with Austin Moon," he says.

"Conceited much?" I ask.

He rolls his eyes and crawls over to me coming to a halt right in front of me, his nose almost touching mine. "Do you know what you could do right now, Ally?" he asks me.

"What?" I ask, starting to feel uncomfortable with him in such close proximity.

His eyes travel down to my lips. "You could kiss me," he says.

"Are you crazy?" I ask, without flinching at his suggestion. I should've seen this coming. I punish myself by standing—well, sitting—my ground instead of shoving him away. "I have a boyfriend," I lie.

"No, you don't," he says, right after I finish my stating my untruth. "I've known you my whole life. I know when you have a boyfriend. I know when you're lying."

"Please," I scoff. "That's impossible." For some reason, Austin and I have been speaking softly. I don't like it one bit. "You have a girlfriend," I say and realize, after a moment, that it isn't a lie. He's dating the girl from Melody Diner, Cassidy Jones. Since she's dating Austin, she's considered the hottest whore in school for the time being.

"Yeah..." Austin says slowly, "but she doesn't have to know."

"That's cheating," I mutter. I don't really care. And I doubt Austin does either. I'm pretty sure he has cheated before; he'll do it again.

"Come on. I know you want to," he says.

"Want to what?" I ask.

"You know what you want to do," he whispers, forcing delicious-smelling minty freshness up my nose. "Every girl at school wants to kiss me. What makes you so different?"

"Um, the fact that I'm not a whore?" I suggest.

"Allyson, I'm giving you the chance of a lifetime," he says. "All you have to do is lean forward. The choice is yours."

I swallow and look down at his lips; the same lips that every girl in school describe as gorgeous, soft, and totally kissable. And now that I think about it, I think I'd use the exact same words. I start to lean closer to him. Our noses touch and—

"Austin! Ally! Cake's done!" my mom calls up the stairs.

Austin's off of my bed—and off of me—in two seconds. He crosses the room to my door. What just happened? It's as if one of the whores from school jumped into my body and screamed _Kiss him! Kiss him!_ And when I wouldn't cooperate, they took control of me and pushed me forward. He looks back at me. "My offer still stands," he tells me then he leaves.

* * *

"This cake is amazing, Mom," I tell her, taking another bite of the horn (the middle of the steering wheel) which has my name on it.

"Yeah, it really is, Mom," Austin says and I roll my eyes. He likes to think of my mom as his second mom. And my mom is the one who told him to! She thought him calling her Mrs. Dawson was as if he didn't know her well. And she thought Penny was too casual. So she told him that he was welcome to call her mom... and he gladly did so.

This seemed to excite my mom even more than she already was. My mom has a large smile on her face; it got brighter when Austin called her Mom. It scares me a little. She turns to my dad who's sitting next to her. "Oh, Lester, can't I just go ahead and tell them?!" she whispers to him, probably to where she thinks Austin and I couldn't hear. Well, I don't know about Austin, but I sure heard it.

"No, sweetheart, we have to wait until the rest of the Moons get here," he says. Almost as if on cue, the doorbell rings. "Door's open!" my dad shouts.

My mom suggested that I should call them Mom and Dad as Austin calls my parents Mom and Dad. Mike and Mimi were totally fine with that.

"Hey, hey!" Mike says.

"Good afternoon!" Mimi calls.

I was never into calling them Mom and Dad.

They rush into the room and sit down around my actual parents, the ones I'm okay with calling Mom and Dad. "Have you told them yet?" Mimi asks my parents. Mike and Mimi seem almost excited as my parents. What's going on?

"Told us what?" Austin asks through a mouthful of cake.

"Can I tell them now?" my mom asks my dad. He looks at Mike and Mimi who nod their heads so vigorously that they look like bobble-heads.

"Yeah, tell them," he says. His excitement starts to match everyone else's. Except Austin and I's. We still have no clue what's going on. Thinking it's pretty much nothing, I take a bite of my cake.

"You're getting married!" my mom tells me excitedly, jumping up and down in her seat.

I choke on my cake.

It wasn't the kind of way where she couldn't believe her ears. She was telling me this. I know, I know. This doesn't sound right. It should be "We're getting married!" but they're not. They're already married.

It's me that's getting married.

You heard me correctly. I'm getting married. Not right away, of course. I'm only seventeen. But once I turn a certain age, my parents are going to force me into marriage. With who, you ask? You wouldn't believe it if I screamed it into your ear. You'd think it was a joke. Oh, I never told you who, did I?

Austin. Monica. Moon.

The hate of my life. Not the love of my life, no. The hate of my life. I hate him with a freaking passion. I regret the day we ever walked into each other's lives. I'm so confused that I wish I could back up a few years.

I look over at him, sitting beside me. His mouth is wide open, revealing the large glob of cake he'd been chewing. I stare at my parents and Austin's parents, seeing how they're waiting for some kind of response. Finally, I do respond.

"I think I'm gonna be sick," I groan. I carefully put my plate of cake on the coffee table and run up the stairs to the nearest bathroom.

**Hey, guys! This is the winner of the poll. It's really called The Future Mrs. Austin Moon Is... Ally! Wait, WHAT?! But omitted my periods and some stuff, I think. Anyway, I don't think I'll be able to update as much as usual. Because there's absolutely no WiFi at my new house (I moved) and I have to go to McDonald's just to do anything on the Internet. But I'll try to update every few days if I get the chance. Hope you like the story and review!**

**LoVe, KeNzIe**

**P.S. Check out fanfiction . net (insert a / here) u/4259456/! (Princess-Girl12's profile) (No spaces)**

**P.P.S. Gosh, that postscript was difficult to do. xD Anyway, review! Love you guys!**

**P.P.P.S. I have no idea who the author of that quote is. Like, I don't know if I made it up or if I've heard it somewhere before. Shoutout to whoever finds the author?**


	2. Chapter 2

I sit on my knees in front of the toilet. Married? To Austin Moon? Excuse me? No! I don't want to be his wife! I don't want to be his fiancée either! No! No, no, no, no, no, no! I spit up the cake lodged in my throat. The room begins to spin. I clutch the toilet seat.

I hear a knock on the bathroom door, but I don't look up. "Honey, our parents sent me up to make sure you're okay. Are you on your period, sweetheart?" Austin asks in a slightly sarcastic tone. I roll my eyes. "Whoa!" is the last thing I hear from him before I faint and fall completely to the floor.

* * *

"Ally! Ally, are you okay?" Austin asks me.

My eyes flutter open. "Ugh, I'm fine. How long was I out?" I ask.

"About five minutes," he tells me. "Now come downstairs, or they'll start to wonder..."

I roll my eyes and stand up. Too quickly. My head spins, along with the room, and I feel the floor soaring upward—or myself falling backward.

Austin catches me in a flash though. "Gravity pulls you down. You can't rely on it to keep you standing, idiot."

He stands me upright and leaves the bathroom. I wait for the room to come into focus before I follow him. We sit back down on the couch and I stare straight forward.

"How do you feel about this, honey?" Mom asks me uneasily.

"Oh, it's a lovely idea," I say sarcastically. She doesn't catch it though.

"Wonderful!" Mimi exclaims. "See, Austin told us he really liked you and that he was too afraid to ask you out on a date. So Mike and I talked to Lester and Penny and we decided that we'd help you two skip the awkward stages and get straight to being married! In a few years, of course." I stare daggers at Austin, hoping that either they're lying or Austin was just joking.

"They can get married now, can't they?" Mom asks. "I mean, all they need is our consent, right?"

"Well, I'll check up on all the legal things and we can get straight to planning!" Mimi exclaims excitedly. "Why don't you two share a kiss?!" She smiles brightly. "Make the engagement official!"

My eyes widen as I look at our parents. "Um... shouldn't we wait until the wedding?" I ask. "Don't you think that'd make it a little more special?"

"Oh, no," Austin says. "I've been waiting my whole life for this."

I look at him. "Huh?" I ask.

As soon as that's out of my mouth, his lips are on mine. "Awww!" everyone in the room exclaims. My eyes stay open and wide. His hand is on the back of my neck so that I can't pull away until he allows me to. I whimper quietly so that only Austin can hear it. He grins against my lips, satisfied, and pulls away from me.

"What the hell was that?" I mouth to him. He just keeps on grinning.

"So cute!" my mom says.

"Penny, can I use your computer and look up the laws on weddings?" Mimi asks.

"Of course!" They walk off toward the study, which holds the computer.

"I think we should go help them. Mimi... isn't the best with technology," Mike says.

"Same with Penny," Dad says. They hurry to the study. I walk up to my room and slam the door shut. There's a knock on my door.

"Honey, are you going to let me in?" Austin asks.

"Stop calling me 'honey'!" I shout, sitting on my bed and crossing my arms angrily. I hear something in the door knob and the door opens. "How did you—?" I start to ask, but Austin just holds up an unfolded paperclip, which he now places in his pocket. He closes the door behind him and sits on the edge of my bed.

"Mind telling me your problem?" he asks.

"Um, sure, why not? Okay, first of all, we're getting _married!_ Second of all, you _kissed_ me like it was nothing. And third of all, _you have a girlfriend!_" That one, I didn't really care about, but I needed a "third of all." "No, actually, third of all, you told your parents you really liked me and then you said you've been waiting your whole life to kiss me!"

"All right. For your 'first of all,' that's not my fault. For your 'second of all,' you know they wouldn't have left us alone until we kissed. And for your first 'third of all,' I'll break up with her. The second 'third of all,' it was a joke, I didn't think they'd take it this far; and that was just to satisfy my mom," he tells me.

"Why are you going to break up with Cassidy because of a wedding that isn't going to happen?" I ask.

"It's gonna happen," he says simply.

"What makes you say that?" I ask.

"Our moms are _very_ persistent," he explains. "I bet, if underage marriage isn't legal, they'll both try to pass a law just for us to get married."

I hated the sound of that. "... for us to get married." Ugh, that sounded terrible. "But I don't want to get married!" I yell. He raises his eyebrows. "I don't want to be Mrs. Moon! I want to stay Ms. Dawson for the rest of my life!"

"You don't want to get married ever?" he asks.

"No! Because knowing me, I'll end up marrying some librarian who pronounces it "liberry" and never does anything with his life!" I say.

"Don't worry," Austin says, standing up from my bed. "I pronounce it 'library' and I'm definitely going to do something with my life. I'll be a better husband than that librarian."

And he leaves my room, pulling the door behind him.

* * *

"So Mimi and I found out that you and Austin can get married as long as you're over sixteen!" my mom exclaimed.

After that awful sentence, I tuned out and headed for the car so I could drive myself to school.. I've been thinking about that all day. I wonder when they're planning on getting us married. I need to stop thinking about the...—I shudder—... _wedding._

But if I can't think about the wedding...

What do I think about?

I sigh as the bell rings and I leave my classroom. As I walk toward my locker, I see Austin and Cassidy talking by his locker.

"You're leaving me for someone else? But I'm soooo hot! I'm so much hotter than she is and you know it!" she screams at him, rolling her eyes. "Who is she anyway?" The whole hallway gets quiet and Austin looks around, embarrassed.

His eyes land on me as I pass by.

He grabs me and pulls me closer, throwing his arm over my shoulders. "This is her," he says. "This is Ally, my fiancée." I try to throw his arm off, but he just tightens his grip. So much that it almost hurts.

"You're _engaged?!_" Cassidy asks. "Is her ring bigger than the one you got me for Valentine's Day? Let me see it. Let me see it!"

"She doesn't have a ring," Austin promises her. "And it wouldn't be bigger than yours anyway."

"Gee, thanks," I mutter.

"Austin got that Ally girl knocked up!" some guy in the crowd yells. I glare in their direction.

"Yeah! That's the only reason they're getting married!" another guy yells. I glare in his direction as well.

"Everyone _shut up!_" Austin yells. "Ally is not pregnant! The only reason we're getting married is because our parents think we like each other and they're forcing us! We had no say in this whatsoever!"

The warning bell rings and I flinch. I'm going to be late for class! No one in the hallway moves though.

"Don't worry, Cassidy," a familiar voice says. I close my eyes in aggravation. "Ally's actually mine. I won't let her marry this jock."

"Jock?" Austin asks. He releases his grip on me and steps closer to Dallas. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, a jock is—"

"I know what a jock is," Austin cuts Dallas off. "What I meant was: why are you calling me a jock? I'm not an idiot who thinks he can beat everyone up. I don't think I'm better than everyone else."

"If you say so," Dallas says, rolling his eyes. "Come on, Ally. Let's get to class." He takes my hand and tries to pull me away. I yank my hand away from his and start walking to class.

"I can get to class on my own," I mutter.

"You'll fall back in love with me, Ally!" Dallas exclaims behind me. "You'll see! You will be mine!" I imagine him tapping his fingers together and doing a creepy laugh behind me.

"Whatever!" I say. "Whatever."

After school, I get straight into my mom's car. I turn the car on, ready to go. Someone slides into the passenger seat before I can even get the car in Drive.

"So what's for dinner, honey?"

Austin.

"I don't know what you're having but I'm having a Mac-and-Cheese single," I tell him. "And I'd appreciate it if you'd get out of the car so that I could go eat my Mac-and-Cheese single."

"Make it a double so we can get on home," he says. Suddenly, someone knocks on the window on my side of the car and I scream. "Chill, baby, it's Dez."

"We're not really going to get married. I'll make sure of that. Would you stop calling me 'baby' and 'sweetheart' and all that nonsense?" I ask. He reaches across me, almost touching my chest, and rolls down my window.

"Hey, Dez!" Austin says, ignoring my question.

Dez, Austin's tall, lanky, redheaded best friend, holds up a jar full of a dark substance. I stare at it, trying to figure out what it is. Dez jumps around as he shouts, "I got a jar of dirt! I got a jar of dirt! And guess what's inside it!"

"The heart of Davy Jones!" Austin exclaims.

Dirt. Dez is carrying around a jar of dirt.

Okay.

"What are you guys going?" Dez asks.

"We're going to her house to have dinner and then make sweet love to each other," Austin says.

"Excuse me?" I ask, whipping my head around to glare at him.

"Oh, sweet! What are you having for dinner?" Dez asks.

"Mac-and-Cheese singles!"

"Awesome!" Dez replies. "Can I come?"

"Sure! Climb on in!" Austin tells him.

"Dez, just so you know, Austin and I aren't really going to 'make sweet love to each other,'" I say to Dez, looking at him in the middle rear view mirror after he sits down in the back seat and buckles up.

"You want to wait until marriage," Austin says. "That's okay. Take your time." He pats my hand, which is lying on the console.

I snatch my hand into my lap. "Shut up."

"I wasn't going to stay long anyway," Dez tells us. "I have to get home with my jar of dirt. I just needed to have an after-school snack. My mom keeps all of the snack foods locked up until after dinner, so I have to eat dog food if I'm hungry."

I open my mouth to say something, then think better of it, and close my mouth. I've learned to just nod and smile when Dez says odd things. I nod and smile at him in the rear view mirror. He gives me his goofy grin.

I put the car in Drive and take us all home. Well, my home, at least. This is going to be a long afternoon.

Austin and Dez sit at the island, waiting for me to make their Mac-and-Cheese. I sit across from them as it rotates in the microwave, cooking.

"So," Austin finally breaks the silence, "let's see your heart of Davy Jones." He turns to Dez and I look at him as well.

"Mm..." Dez glances at each of us. "Can I_ really_ trust you guys to just look and not touch?"

"Yes," I say, "Dez, I promise I won't touch. I can't say anything about Austin though..."

"Come on, Dez, we're practically brothers," Austin says. "You can trust me."

Dez hesitates before opening the jar and plunging his hand deep into the dirt. He feels around for a few minutes before taking his hand back out, covered in dirt and empty. The microwave beeps and I cross the kitchen to retrieve the Mac-and-Cheese. "Oh, my God..." Dez whispers when I return to the island. "It's gone. Davy Jones's heart is gone..."

"Here you go, Dez," I say, setting down the small blue cup in front of him. I put another one in the microwave.

Dez pulls a sword out of his pants—it must have been running down his pants leg—and points it at Austin. "I thought I could trust you," Dez says quietly. I glance at sword he's holding—the tip of which is almost resting on Austin's nose; his eyes are crossed so that he can look at it—and see that it looks extremely sharp and extremely real. "The closest ones are always the ones who betray you..." Dez's eyes blaze with fire. "_You lied to me!_" Dez screams. "_I thought I could trust you!_"

"Whoa!" I shout. "No swords in the kitchen! Take it to your own home."

Dez sheaths the sword within his pants again. "We'll settle this later," Dez says to Austin. He puts the lid back on his jar of dirt and stomps out of the kitchen. He then stomps back in, grabs his Mac-and-Cheese cup, and stomps back out.

I look at Austin, the two of us now alone in the kitchen. "And then there were two," he says, grinning. "No parents upstairs. No best friend around. "Just husband- and wife-to-be."

"You're screwed," I say, ignoring his statements.

"What do you mean?"

"With Dez?" I say. "You're screwed. Was that sword real?"

"Yeah," Austin replies. "Everything Dez has is authentic. It may not have been used in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, but it's a real sword. Why do you think I was so worried about that shit in front of my face?"

"So he's been carrying that around all day?" I ask. "At school?"

"Doubt it," Austin tells me. "Wouldn't want to get in trouble, would he? He probably stashed it somewhere off of school grounds or in the bushes outside of school."

"Yeah, probably," I say.

"So, where's my food, woman?" he asks me. I lean across the island and slap him clear across the face. "Um, ow? What was that for?"

"Never expect me to make your food, even if we do end up getting married, and never, ever call me 'woman,'" I say. The microwave beeps. "Make your own damn food."

I walk over and take my food out of the microwave. I feel Austin press up against my back, his cinnamon smell filling my nose. I love cinnamon.

"_Please_ make my Mac-and-Cheese, _Ally_," he says, pressing his cheek to mine.

When Austin is near me (like, less than a foot away), my brain goes insane. He always smells like cinnamon—which is the most romantic and intoxicating flavor/smell in the world to me—and I always end up closing my eyes, letting myself sink into the cinnamon and letting it take me away to another world. I turn around, his body pressing my backside against the counter now. I take a deep breath, breathing in the cinnamon deeply... and snap my eyes open.

No, Ally.

"Fine, if you go over there, _away from me_, I'll make your stupid food," I promise him.

"Yay!" he exclaims, jumping and sliding over the counter and sitting down. "Have you ever tried cinnamon in Mac-and-Cheese?" I stare at him, slamming my Mac-and-Cheese cup down in front of him. "What's your problem?" he asks. "Cinnamon is awesome."

"You _never_ talk about cinnamon around me," I say. "_Ever._"

It's not that I don't like the flavor. I just said that I do, didn't I? It's just... cinnamon makes me weak... I'm not entirely sure why. It just always has. And I'm pretty sure it always will.

I'll probably never know why either...

I turn back around to start making the last cup for myself. "A-Ally...?" Austin asks in a small voice. I turn on him, eyes blazing.

"_What?_" I ask.

"D-Do you have any?" he asks me.

I frown. He looks so scared, so small, so... delicate. You never see Austin Moon like that. He exudes confidence with every step, every breath.

I guess I just really scare him.

My eyes soften as I begin to feel sorry for him, the boy in front of me who looks like a small child, incapable of reaching the top of the counter.

"Yeah," I mutter. I open the cabinet and toss the cinnamon to him. I should use this thing against Austin.

Angry Ally=Afraid Austin

That could work for me. I'll only use it when I absolutely need it though. I'll use my powers for good, like any good super hero would do.

Austin pours the cinnamon into his Mac-and-Cheese cup. He takes a bite, sinks down in his chair, and moans. "Mmm," he says. "Are you sure you don't want to try this?"

I think about declining his offer, but you know what they say: Curiosity killed the Ally-Cat.

I walk over to him, take his spoon from him, and take a bite of the cinnamon-y/cheesy flavor. I take a deep breath. "It is kind of good," I tell him, taking one more bite before giving him back his spoon. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," he says. A grin spreads across his face. "Is that the only thanks I get or...?"

I roll my eyes as the microwave beeps a third time. I sit down beside him and start eating. After a moment, I stop.

"What's wrong?" Austin asks me, glancing sidelong at me.

"Nothing..." I say. I take the cinnamon container and pour some into my Mac-and-Cheese. I mix it up, take a bite, and smile.

"Are you gonna eat it like that every time from now on?" he asks me, with a slight chuckle.

"Yeah," I say, "probably." We sit there and eat in silence as the room starts to fill with the smell of cinnamon.

**(IMPORTANT A/N READ THIS NOW IF YOU DON'T YOU WILL SURELY DIE IN TEN DAYS FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO SEVEN PEOPLE OR THE DEAD LITTLE GIRL WHO LIVES IN YOUR DREAMS WILL COME AND—Sorry, that was a lie. Don't report me I love you guys don't die. This really is an important A/N though. Well, the postscript is anyway.)**

**Sorry I haven't updated in a couple of days. I'm at my house at the place I moved FROM (not the place I live at now.) And there's internet here. We actually came to get the internet stuff and the cable boxes and you know. But while I'm here, I'm gonna update. And they're going to transfer our internet and cable to my new house on... Wednesday, I think. So I'll possibly be updating more often. Or not, because you know how I've started to update... terribly... :( Sorry about that.**

**LoVe, KeNzIe**

**P.S. To the people asking me to finish other stories, they're most likely already finished. I'm sorry. And to the people who reviewed on The Next Summer, telling me to update, I SHALL NEVERRRR. Just kidding, but really, I probably won't update for a while on that one. If someone could help me think of an idea for it, I'd continue. And yes, some people have given me ideas; I just haven't got around to writing on that story. I've been obsessing over this story and over a book I'm attempting to write. So the book is pretty much the reason for my slow updating now... Thanks for the ideas and sorry I can't update the stories that have ended that you like so much. :/ I'll update my poll though and put some sequels on there though? How does that sound?**


	3. Chapter 3

**If you don't wanna read about a drug, don't read paragraph six. Which is the one that starts with "They'll be home soon..." Just a head's up. :)**

"So where are your parents anyway?" Austin asks me.

"Dad's at Sonic Boom," I say, "Mom's at Moon's Mattress Kingdom."

He looks at me. "Why?"

"You guys have WiFi and Sonic Boom doesn't," I tell him. "Our moms are doing most of the things over the internet. They said it was because they wanted to be like the young kids and learn how to use these things. My mom's actually considering buying an iPhone."

"That should be interesting," Austin says, sounding slightly like he could really care less. He makes a movement, barely noticeable... unless you're me. I look down and see that he's moved his chair a little closer to mine.

"They'll be home soon though," I almost say, but just don't feel like it. Like I said before, the smell of cinnamon is all around the room. It's almost as if someone's smoking marijuana and the smell is getting me high, slowing down my brain's thinking process. I can barely speak without breathing in a bunch of cinnamon so I just let Austin do all the talking.

His arm slithers around my waist. "Well, I don't know about your dad, but I know your mom won't be home for a while," he tells me. I turn and see that his face is extremely close to mine. His cinnamon smell slaps me in the face... but it's also mixed with cheese. I can fight the intoxicating scent.

I scoop the last of my Mac-and-Cheese into my mouth and stand up from my seat. "I have homework to do," I lie quickly before my voice gives out.

"No, you don't," he says. I start to say something, but he cuts me off. "Ally, I know you like the back of my hand," he tells me. "I know when you're lying. Plus, you would've been doing it during our snack."

"Cinnamon!" I blurt out.

"What?" he asks, not really looking surprised.

I run, tripping over my chair. Without standing it upright, I stand again and run from the room. Cinnamon, cinnamon, cinnamon. Cinnamonnnn. Cinnamon-y cinnamon.

Okay, Ally, calm down. I run into the bathroom in my room and pick up my toothpaste, unscrewing the cap. I breathe in the minty freshness and sigh in relief as I remove the last trace of cinnamon from my mind.

"Ally," I hear Austin call as he opens the door to my room and walks in, completely uninvited. I leave my bathroom with my back erect and my head held high.

"Ever heard of knocking?" I ask, still smelling the mint.

"Did you just brush your teeth?" Austin asks me, cocking his head to the side as he steps closer to me. "Or your nose?"

He taps my nose. He holds the finger he tapped me with close to his face. "Toothpaste," he says, "like I thought. Just why?"

"No reason," I say, wiping my nose to make sure there's no more. I cross my arms over my chest. "If you came up here to make an engagement joke that isn't funny, you can leave."

"No, I came up to talk seriously," he says. "Our moms have their heart set on this wedding. You know that, right?" I nod. "Well, if we tell them we hate each other, it'll break their hearts and they'll cry and get depressed. You know _that_, right?" I nod again, slower this time. "I think we should just act like we're looking forward to this wedding. For the time being."

"So you don't care if we get married?" I ask. "What if you want to marry Cassidy or—"

Austin cuts me off by laughing. "_Cassidy?_" he asks me. "You think I want to marry _Cassidy_?" He keeps laughing.

"Well, I thought you really liked her and—Whatever. What if you meet a girl down the road that you really start to like and you want to marry her?" I ask. "You won't be able to because—"

"Hold on," he says, raising a hand to silence me. "You do realize that you live down the road from me, right?"

"That isn't what I—"

"So basically, you're telling me that if I like you and want to marry you, I won't be able to because I'll already be married to you?" he says.

"That isn't what I meant! Austin, you know that I meant that as a metaphor," I mutter.

"And, Allyson, you know I'm not good with metaphors," he tells me.

"Whatever," I say, rolling my eyes. "Say I go along with this, pretending we're happy about the engagement. How long would we have to do it?"

"Until we think up a plan to get out of it," he says.

I sigh. "What's in it for me?" I ask.

"You get to go out with a football player," Austin says, pointing to himself. "Sort of. Plus, you still owe me so you don't really need to get anything out of it anyway."

I stare at him. "I don't owe you a thing," I tell him.

"You always do the things I ask you to do anyway though," he reminds me. "Just remember that I could make you do things much worse than this."

I huff. Then I remember something. "Wait, you're on the football team?" I ask.

His eyes widen. Then he slaps himself hard in the forehead, seeming to knock himself back onto my bed. "Are you kidding me, Ally?" he asks, his hand still covering his eyes. "Please tell me you are. Where do you think I go every Monday after school? _Football practice!_"

"Sorry," I mumble.

"So..." Austin says. "No homework?"

"No homework," I confirm.

He walks over and opens my door, walking out of it. I follow close behind him, wondering if he's leaving. He walks through the kitchen to the living room. I hold my breath as I walk through. He plops down on the couch, turning the TV on. I sit down beside him and see what he's watching.

_Guy Code._

_Guy Code_ is such a weird show. I don't even really like _Girl Code_, the female version of the show. Austin roars with laughter as someone says something that I guess was supposed to be funny.

"Guy code," the guys says firmly.

"Guy code," I mouth, mocking him and rolling my eyes. I look over and see that Austin caught me.

"What, you don't like the show?" he asks me.

I shake my head. "Sorry."

"Would you rather watch Disney Channel?" he asks jokingly.

"Yes. As a matter of fact, I would," I tell him. "Anything's better than this show."

"Well, fine," he says. He types in Disney Channel's channel number on the remote and it pops up.

A show called _Aiden & Ashley_ is on. It's about a guy and a girl who met in a music store and started writing music together. You could tell they liked each other from the first episode. There was really no need to watch it to find out they'd start dating. I was shocked when they broke up soon after though.

"We could have a show like that," Austin tells me, "on Disney Channel. Well, if you wrote songs." He looks at me. "Do you write songs?"

I shake my head, not adding anything to the lie.

"Oh," Austin says. "But Dez is just like Dan except Dez carries around a book bag instead of a purse—"

"It's a satchel," I cut him off, but he just keeps talking.

"—And Trish is just like Tara. She can be mean and she always has a new job," he continues. "It's like they based this show on our lives. Think about it: _Austin & Ally_. Can't you see that on your TV guide as the new hit TV show on Disney Channel?"

"Yeah, except Aiden and Ashley aren't being forced into marriage," I mutter, ignoring his last few statements.

Austin's head snaps toward the door, seeming to hear something I didn't. "Remember how you agreed to act happy?" he asks me. About the engagement, yes. I nod. He pulls me into his lap. "Well..." The door knob turns. "Starting now."

He turns to me, closing his eyes, and kisses me deeply, putting his hands on my waist and the small of my back. I hesitate before closing my eyes as well and wrapping my arms around his neck, kissing back.

"Shhh!" I hear someone say. Sounds like my mom. And Austin said she wouldn't be home soon.

Who is she talking to though? My curiosity gets the best of me. I pull away from Austin, my arms still around his neck. I pull one of my arms away so that I can wipe Austin's spit off of my lips before putting it back. Gross. Austin needs to learn how to kiss. Unless he did that on purpose.

I look at my mom and see that she was shushing Mimi. "Sorry for the PDA," I say to them, pretending to pretend I really didn't mean for them to walk in on that. I giggle and rest my head on Austin's shoulder, prompting him to lie his head on top of mine.

My mom and Mimi go insane at this. "Oh, get the camera!" Mom exclaims. "Get the camera!" Mimi pulls a camera out of her bag and snaps a quick picture.

"Look!" she says, as if the picture is much better than the actual thing. "We'll have to put that on the Facespace!"

I glance at Austin and he glances at me, both of us suppressing the urge to burst out laughing. "It's Face_book_, Mom, and why do you have one of those anyway?" Austin asks. "You're too..." He trails off as Mimi shoots a look at him. "... cool to have a Facebook. Uh, MySpace is where it's at. You should put it on there."

"Penny, we're behind on the latest things!" Mimi yells. "We have to go make a MySpace and delete our Facebooks!" They run off to the study.

"MySpace?" I ask. "No one uses—"

"Shhh," Austin says, pressing a finger to my lips. "Everyone uses MySpace. Facebook and Tweeter are lame. Right?"

I catch on and nod my head. "Right," I say. We sit there for a moment before I realize I'm still sitting in Austin's lap. I rise quickly to my feet and roll my eyes in disgust. "That was disgusting. I won't be able to stand having to do that all the time."

"Yeah, totally disgusting," Austin agrees, nodding vigorously.

"And you're a terrible kisser," I tell him.

"Whoa, whoa, hold up, excuse me?" he says. "Last I checked, I was the best kisser in school." He stands up so that, instead of looking up at me, he can tower over me and try to intimidate me into agreeing with him.

"You were lied to," I say. "Did you see me wipe my lips? That's because your stupid spit was all over them!"

"It's a habit, licking a girl's lips," he argues. "Plus, you're stubborn as hell and won't open your damn mouth unless I do that!"

"Why do you have to lick my lips in the first place? There was no need to add tongue. They would've believed us just fine if we had just... like... well, you know!" I exclaim, annoyed, not knowing what to call the kiss that has no tongue involved.

"Oh, you mean like this?!" he yells back. He leans down and kisses me with no tongue. I'm about to pull away when my mom and Mimi enter the room. Amazing timing, Austin. Really. Our arms and hands go to the usual places: his on my waist and the small of my back; mine around his neck.

"Oh, they just can't stop, can they?" Mom says to Mimi. "Hey, could you two break it up for just a second? We have a few questions to ask you."

I really don't want to answer any questions about the wedding. So I pull away from Austin for just a moment to say, "We're a little busy. Can you come back later?" before going back in.

"Ally," my mom says, a little on the whiny side, "this is important."

I pull away from Austin and sigh, annoyed. Not that I had to stop kissing Austin, no! But because I have to answer questions now. I nod slightly, to where our moms wouldn't notice, to Austin, answering his previous question. "Okay."

"Well, it isn't that important. We just wanted to ask why you two were yelling," Mom says.

"Oh!" I say. "Um... We... Austin?" I look to him for help.

He comes to my rescue. "We were having an 'I love you' war," he lies. "We just kept getting louder. Sorry, we couldn't help it." He looks at me. "By the way, I won. Because I, Austin Monica Moon, do, in fact, love you more. And I always will. You can't change that." He sticks his tongue out at me. "So ha."

"So adorable," my mom says, smiling widely.

I raise my voice ever so slightly. "But that's completely impossible, baby, because I love you even more!"

"No!" he says. "I love you more!"

"Nuh uh!" I exclaim. "I love you _more_!"

"No way, Ally!" Austin shouts. "I love you _way_ more than you love me!"

"No, you don't!" I yell. "I love you more than you'll _ever_ love me! Girls can do anything guys can do, but girls can just do it better! Therefore, you lose. I win. And I. Love. You. More!"

He groans in frustration and just leans down and kisses me before I can add anything else to my fake argument. I'm guessing he kissed me to show our moms how yelling turned into kissing the last time. I go along with it. He opens his mouth enough to let his tongue slip through and trace my lips. I keep my mouth firmly shut.

Our arms and hands go to their places. Austin licks my lips once more. My lips don't budge. He seems to get frustrated by this. We're standing at an angle. What I'm saying is that our moms can't see my back. Austin's lower hand slides even further down onto my backside.

I know what he's trying to do. He's trying to freak me out so that I'll open my mouth for him. Well, not this time. Then he does something unexpected, though I should've seen it coming. He... _squeezes_ my backside. I open my mouth to let out a quiet yelp. He puts his hand back on the small of my back, obviously satisfied with his success. I can feel the smirk appearing on his lips as he adds more tongue to our kiss.

"We're going to have to put you on separate sides of the house if you two can't keep your hands off of each other!" Mimi jokes. "We just have one more question to ask you and we'll be done here if you could just take a breath."

Austin and I let out small fake laughs as we pull away from each other. "All right, what's the question?" Austin asks, detaching himself from me, but putting an arm around my shoulders. I put one around his waist.

"Okay, I promised we wouldn't ask any important questions so..." Mom says. "Uh... what are your favorite colors?"

Random, but I say, "Red."

"Yellow," Austin says at the same time.

"Red and yellow," Mimi says. "Got it. Thanks, kids." They return to the study.

I immediately step away from Austin. He steps away as well. After a few silent moments, he asks, "Am I going to have to do _that_ every time too?"

"No," I say quickly. "Definitely not. You can just lick my lips from now on. That—That'll work fine."

"That's, um, that's what I thought..." he replies quietly.

"Don't you have somewhere to be?" I ask, realizing we have nothing else to do.

"Yeah, I have... Well, no..." Austin says.

"Well, can you go find something to do?" I ask him. I quickly realize my mistake. Now he knows I just want him to leave.

He grins. "I think I just found something I can do," he says, his arms sliding around my waist. I try to wiggle out of his grasp but he doesn't allow me to. "Do you remember the other day when I said you could kiss me if you wanted and you didn't?" Austin asks me, bringing my face nearer to his. He breathes cinnamon into my face. I'd like to slap him again, but I don't. "Every time I've kissed you since then, you've seemed like you wanted it more than _anything_. As if you've looked forward to kissing me your whole life." I close my eyes and turn my face away from his, trying to ignore the smell. "Kiss me one more time. Look me in the eye and tell me you don't like it at all. And I'll stop using tongue. Simple as that."

I take a deep breath, stand my ground, and look him in the eye again. "Promise?"

"Swear," he says. "You have to use tongue for this kiss, by the way. And if you do like it, we have to use tongue from now on. For _every. Single. Kiss._"

I groan, frustrated. Nevertheless, I accept his challenge. "Fine."

Austin closes his eyes and kisses me again, placing his hands on my hips. I close my eyes, but keep my hands at my sides, not really sure how to make myself seem like I don't want it while using them. If I put my hands anywhere on him, he'll think I want it, think I want him. And I don't.

I don't.

I feel my back bending slightly and notice that Austin's leaning into the kiss. He keeps one arm around my waist and puts the other hand on the back of my neck. He licks my lips, making me open my mouth. I try not to use my tongue as much and make him do all the work.

Austin breathes in, taking my air from me, still kissing me. The hand on the back of my neck travels back down to my waist again. I take my air back from him, breathing in. Cinnamon fills my mouth. If my eyes were open right now, they'd droop. I tangle both of my sets of fingers in his hair and it's then that I realize how freaking soft his perfect blond hair is.

But I don't care about that right now.

All I care about is cinnamon.

With my hands on his head now, I kiss him harder and breathe faster. Getting quick bursts of cinnamon injected into my mouth. Austin steps backward and we fall onto the couch. I keep my face glued to his, climbing into his lap with my legs on either side of him and my pelvis pressed against his stomach. I'll scold myself for this later. Right now, I won't worry about it though.

I moan. Austin's hands press down hard on my hips. Not so hard that it'd hurt though. His hands slide over my hips to my thighs. Then they graze over my backside as they slide around under my shirt. I don't even care. Let him do whatever. I'm getting cinnamon.

Gosh, I have an obsession...

Whatever.

Austin pulls his head away from mine. I almost go after him but I decide against it. We sit there for a moment or two, breathing heavily and trying to catch our breath. Austin catches his first and I catch mine while he speaks. "Five seconds to tell me: Do you or do you not like it?" he asks me. He begins to count down. "Five."

Not thinking very clearly, as my mind is clouded with cinnamon, I nod, saying, "I do. I like it."

"Four."

"I like it a lot. In fact, I love it."

"Three," he says, "two."

Everything comes into focus. "Wait a minute. No!" I exclaim. "I liked the—"

"One."

"—Cinnamon," I finish hopelessly. "It wasn't the kiss I liked. It was breathing in the cinnamon. I swear, it was the cinnamon!"

"I don't know, Ally," he says, looking down at our position before looking back up into my eyes. "Your" —he uses air quotes on the next two words— "'lady parts' are touching my stomach if you didn't notice. You have me trapped with your legs. My hair is matted up and probably knotted because you were pulling on it so damn hard with your fingers. That kind of hurt, by the way. And we couldn't breathe afterwards. If those weren't the signs of a good kiss, then may God strike me with lightning."

"You—No! It was the—"

"Do _not_ try to tell me it was the cinnamon," Austin says. "That's just creepy."

"But it was!" I exclaim, getting off of him since I realized I lingered in his lap too long. "You don't understand! Cinnamon makes me crazy! I don't know why either!"

Austin shakes his head, clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth a few times. "Poor, naive Allyson," Austin says. He stands up and walks to the door. He shouts to his mom that he's about to walk home. She says something about him going on without her. "You like kissing me. You especially like using tongue." He turns to leave and calls over his shoulder to me, "Simple as that, Allyson. Simple as that."

**Hey, guys! GUESS WHAT DAY IT IS. Guess what day. It. Is. HUMP DAY. (Sorry, I really like that commercial. xD) Have a lovely Hump Day. Your Hump Day present is this chapter. Hope you enjoyed. xD**

**LoveShipper, but they'd already gotten to know each other. In fact, they knew each other pretty well. You know how Austin keeps saying "I know when you're lying"? It's because he knows Ally so well. And they already knew they couldn't stand each other. xD You have to remember that they've known each other for about eleven years now. I think it was eleven years. Somewhere around that number.**

**(This review was from Chapter One that I forgot to say something to) tigerab1997, my sister's stories? My sister doesn't write stories. xD**

**LoVe, KeNzIe**


	4. Chapter 4

I drove to school today, but my mom took the car with her. She told me to either get a ride from a friend or walk home. I'll probably be walking home at the end of the day.

I walk into my first period and see Trish. I run to her and hug her tightly. "Trish! Oh, my gosh, hey! You're feeling better, I'm guessing?" I say. Trish has been sick for the past four days. I think she had the flu but she refused to go to the doctor.

"Yes, I'm feeling better," she says. "Why haven't you answered my calls and texts?"

"Oh... I've been... a little stressed. I have some things to tell you," I say, "but you have to promise not to kill me. It's not my fault anyway."

"All right, I promise," she says.

The bell rings. "I'll tell you in free period."

"I don't have a free period," she tells me.

"Yes, you do," I say. "Do you remember how you got out of Shop Class? And now you go shopping during that period?"

"Ohhhh, that's a free period?" she asks me.

"Yeah, except you can't go shopping today," I say. "Promise?"

She sighs. "Promise."

* * *

I've been able to avoid Austin all day. In fact, I haven't seen him at all today. He's probably having break-up sex with Cassidy or something. I don't know. I mean, I'm guessing, because I haven't seen either of them all day.

But since I've been avoiding Austin, Dallas comes to fill his place. I wait by my locker in free period, waiting for Trish. Instead, Dallas walks up, looking happy as can be.

"I see you and Austin aren't together anymore," he says, smiling brightly.

"Um... no, we're still..." I swallow, forcing myself to say the word. "... together."

"That's... not what I heard," he says, his smile slowly fading.

"Oh, yeah?" I ask. "And what exactly did you hear?"

"I heard that you two were faking it so that Austin could break up with Cassidy," he says.

I raise my eyebrows at him. "Oh, really? Who told you that?"

He stands up straight, completely ready to lie straight to my face. He melts as he looks into my eyes though. "My brain."

"That's what I thought," I say.

"But he really is cheating on you!" he tells me. "He's still with Cassidy! They're in there right now, making out!" I follow his pointing finger to the supply closet next to my locker. Now that it's quiet, I do hear noises coming from the closet. "See for yourself!"

I shrug and open the door, not caring if they're making out. Even though something small does pull on my heart as I rest my hand on the door knob. I pull the door open. Austin's back is bent way too much. He's being pushed back onto a table in the closet by Cassidy. He keeps turning his face away from her. "No, Cassidy!" he shouts. I see that she's trying to kiss him. His eyes are squeezed shut, as if he's actually afraid of kissing her or something. His hands are pinned to the table with her own.

"Come on!" she yells. "Just kiss me! Take me! Do whatever you want with me! I will not lose you to that ugly little bitch, Ally!"

They don't seem to have noticed I've opened the door. "Ally isn't ugly and she's not a bitch!" Austin says. "How are you so strong?!"

"I don't think you want to know," she says.

He stops struggling and looks up at Cassidy, his head tilted a little. "You've been cheating on me," he says calmly. "You've been cheating on me with... You've been giving handies to Wilson, the quarterback, haven't you? I heard he's huge. It would take a lot to give him a handjob. That's why you're so strong." He grins, shaking his head, and chuckles. "I should've known you were a cheater, Cassidy Jones. Most cheerleaders are sluts, and you're the cheerleading captain."

"No, Austin," she says quietly. "No! That's not what's been going on! You have to believe me, Austin."

With a sudden burst of strength, Austin frees his hands and stands up straight, now towering over Cassidy. "Every day, we tease Wilson about not having a girlfriend. And he always tells us that he does have a girlfriend, that he's dating a cheerleader. And now I know." He smiles. "Cassidy, I broke up with you yesterday. And I'm sticking with that decision. Ally's my fiancée and I'm not gonna have two girls. Go find Wilson."

Austin starts to turn, but I'm already running down the hallway. "Austin!" I hear Cassidy wail, tears making her unable to speak as well. It echoes down the near-empty hallway.

"Dallas, what are you doing here?" I hear Austin ask. I look back just in time to see Dallas point down the hall at me. Austin turns his head and I turn mine as well, just in time to see the brick wall at the end of the hall. I crash straight into it. I hear more footsteps bounce off the walls. I rub my head as I stand up. I turn to my right and continue down the hall, half-jogging half-limping.

"Ally, are you okay?" Austin asks from behind me as he catches up.

"Imfunustin," I mumble.

"You're fun?" Austin asks me.

"Fun!" I exclaim. "I'm fun!" Blood drips down onto my shirt.

"Are you trying to say 'fine'?" Austin asks me, walking beside me now. "Uh, your lip's bleeding. Come on, let's go to the nurse."

"I'm fun!" I yell. When I try to say the "f," my teeth graze across my split-open lip and it hurts, so I end up saying "fun" instead of "fine." I whimper, trying to suck the blood from my lip.

"Don't do that," Austin warns me. "It's just gonna hurt worse." Austin tries to lead me in the direction of the nurse's office but I won't let him.

"Damnit," I say. I start to take the top of my shirt and dab my lip with it, but Austin stops me.

"You're gonna leave a stain, Ally," Austin tells me. "Stop it." He leads me over to a bench on the side of the hallway and sits me down. He puts his book bag beside me and rummages through it. "Uh, here."

He hands me a white T-shirt. When I just stare at it, unaware of what he wants me to do, he takes my hand and pushes it up to my lip gently, probably to stop the bleeding. I feel the blood begin to flow slower. He continues to look in his bag for about a minute before he just zips it up. Austin looks at me, sitting down beside me and putting his book bag on the floor.

"So what did you hear?" he asks.

"I just heard you say no to Cassidy and the last thing I heard was..." I decide to lie. Since I'm already talking like I have braces and I'm looking at his T-shirt every few seconds, I don't think he'll be able to notice. "... how you said you tease Wilson about not having a girlfriend. Then I left."

He looks at me closely, trying to study my eyes which I keep glued to the bloody T-shirt. "Are you sure that's the last thing you heard?" he asks.

I nod. He sits back, seemingly relieved by my answer. He opens his mouth to say something but Dallas rounds the corner, out of breath. "You're such a slow runner," Austin says to Dallas, his sweet side leaving us.

"No, you're just fast," Dallas argues. He kneels down in front of me. "Ally, baby, are you okay?" He places his hands on my knees. "Don't ever scare me like that again. You could've—"

"Dallas. Can't you just leave me alone?" I ask, taking Austin's T-shirt away from my lip. Dallas starts to say something about it, but I just keep talking. "I mean, this is exactly why I broke up with you. You were too clingy! And now you still won't leave me alone! You make me want to move to Canada... Or at least transfer schools!" I say.

"Don't transfer!" Austin and Dallas say simultaneously.

Dallas sighs. "If you just give me one last kiss, I'll leave you alone," Dallas promises. "Forever." Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me. I glance at Austin who shakes his head.

I swallow. "I'll have to think about it," I say. He just sits there, staring at me, waiting for my decision. "Fine."

"Ally, you don't have to do this," Austin says.

"He won't leave me alone unless I do," I remind him, "so I think I do."

"No, I can keep him away from you," he tells me.

"Yeah, and why would you do that?" I ask. "You don't _owe_ me anything." He starts to say something but I'm already leaning down to... kiss Dallas. I'm almost at his lips before someone cries, "Wait!"

I look up and see Trish walking toward us. "Sorry I'm late. Mr. Dickwall" —his real name is Mr. Hickwall but Trish doesn't like him so she calls him that— "wouldn't let me leave and then I went to your locker and you weren't there and I couldn't find you," she says. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Um... Dallas said he'd leave me alone if I kissed him," I say, my face still inches from his.

"I tried to stop them," Austin says.

"We can talk about this later," Trish says. She takes Austin's shirt from me and holds up the bloody part. "And this too. This is yours, isn't it, Austin? You might wanna wash that," she says, throwing it at him. She takes my hand and leads me away from Austin and Dallas. She takes me to the empty band room.

There aren't any instruments in here since they just finished painting it. We sit down on the floor and Trish takes in my appearance. "What happened, Ally?" she asks, looking pretty disappointed in me.

"Cassidy was attacking Austin, trying to get him to kiss her. At the end of their conversation, Austin smiled and said, 'Ally's my fiancée and—"

"Ally's his what now?" she asks me, her eyes wide.

"Oh, yeah, um... ourparentsareforcingusintomarriageandtheresnothing wecandoaboutit," I mutter quickly. Trish just stares at me. I sigh. "Our parents are forcing us into marriage and there's nothing we can do about it."

"Awww!" Trish exclaims.

My mouth drops open. "Trish! Do you not remember how I _hate_ Austin?!" I ask.

She just smiles. "Yeah, I remember, but... Austin can be pretty sweet and he's pretty hot," she tells me. "And he's on the football team for God's sake!"

"Austin is _mean_ and... he's cute. I wouldn't go as far as saying he's hot," I grumble like a child who isn't getting her way. "And am I the only one who didn't know he was on the football team?"

"Ally! Where do you think he goes on Monday after school?" she asks me. "And why do you think I always scream at Number Eighteen at football games?"

"Is he supposed to be Number Eighteen?" I ask her blankly. She nods, rolling her eyes.

"All right, on to Dallas. Were you really about to kiss him when I could've just scared him away?" she asks.

"I forgot about you... I'm sorry. Would you really do that for me?" I ask.

"Of course. Now tell me: Have you and Austin kissed yet?" she asks.

I blush a little. "Yeah..."

"Ooh, you're blushing! Is he a good kisser?!" she asks me.

I'm snapped back to reality. "No," I say, "he's a terrible kisser."

"I would gladly take your place, Ally, if I could," Trish tells me.

I roll my eyes. "And I would gladly let you," I say. The bell rings. "See you after school?"

"See you after school," Trish agrees.

* * *

Dallas has left me alone. I'm guessing Trish has talked to him. Austin, however, walks right up to me the next time I see him. Which is after school. I'm going to regret asking him this, but, "Do you have a ride home?"

"Isn't that you?" he asks me.

"No, my mom has the car," I tell him.

"So what do we do?" he asks.

I shrug. "I guess I'm walking home."

"Da, da, da, da... Da, da, da, da..." Trish walks up, singing the wedding song. I hear Austin chuckle at my side. "Ah, there's the happy couple." Trish looks at me. "Can I have a ride home?"

"No," I say.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry about calling you two a happy couple and singing the wedding song," she says.

"No, I said no because my mom has the car," I tell her. "She didn't leave it here. I guess she had errands to run."

"So we're all stranded here or has Austin got a ride?" Trish asks.

"I'm walking," I tell them. I walk through the parking lot to the road and start toward my house. A tune starts to play in my head and I hum along with it. "What kind of man misunderstands a woman like you?" I sing, not entirely sure where it came from. "Sees her in black and white."

That seems to be the opposite of Austin. He doesn't seem to know _how_ to misunderstand me. He sees through my lies with ease. Maybe I'm thinking of Dallas. He has no idea what I want. I continue humming, unable to think of any more lyrics. Austin and Trish catch up to me.

"What did you just say?" Austin asks me.

"I was singing," I tell him.

"What song?" he asks.

"I can't remember what it's called," I lie, not looking at him. "I just heard it on the radio this morning."

Austin stares at me, walking beside me now. "You're lying," he says. Trish hurries, walking on my other side now, not wanting to miss a thing.

"Am not," I say.

"Ally."

"I'm not lying! I didn't write that!" I yell.

Austin smirks, one corner of his mouth tilting up. This is really the only time I would call him "hot." Smirks can be pretty sexy. "No one said you wrote it, Ally," he tells me.

I swear under my breath. "Okay, I wrote it," I admit. "But I didn't mean to. I just kinda... sang it."

"Now we can be just like Aiden and Ashley," he tells me. "All I have to do is steal your song." He laughs.

"Aiden and Ashley?" Trish asks. "Are you talking about that lame show on Disney Channel?"

"I love that show!" I exclaim. "It isn't lame."

"The only part I like about it is that character, Tara," she tells Austin and I. "And I kinda think that Dan character is pretty cute."

"I think Dan looks like Dez," Austin says.

"Ew, no, he doesn't!" Trish shouts.

I look at Trish. "Yeah, he does," I agree with Austin.

Trish huffs, crossing her arms over her chest. Speaking of Dez, he jumps out of the bushes and points his sword at Austin again. He's still clutching that stupid jar of dirt. "Surrender to me the heart of Davy Jones or ye shall perish!" Dez shouts at him. Austin's hands shoot up in surrender.

"What the hell?" Trish says.

"I don't have it!" Austin yells.

"Ye are a liar!" Dez exclaims. "Ye stole the heart from me jar of dirt!"

"No, I didn't!" Austin says.

"Ye shall walk the plank then!" Dez says. He looks around. "Argh, we have no plank. Ye shall learn and dance the Irish jig in front of the school Monday then!"

"Fine, fine!" Austin shouts. "Just don't slice me up!"

Dez walks behind him and prods Austin in the back with his sword, making Austin walk faster. As they walk faster in front of us, I see that the back of Austin's shirt has a few dots of blood from where the sword dug into him.

"Dez, stop it!" I shout after them.

Dez turns on me, pointing the sword at me now as he walks back to Trish and I. "Excuse me?"

"You're making your best friend bleed! You're going to end up slicing right through his back _and_ his stomach if you don't stop now!" I scream at him. I take a deep breath, watching as Austin spins around in circles, trying to see the blood. "Dez, can I have a hug?" I ask suddenly, shocking everyone.

Austin stops spinning and stares at me, one eyebrow raised. Trish has a look of disgust painted on her face. Austin starts walking toward us again.

"Of course ye can have a hug!" Dez exclaims, lowering his sword and stepping nearer to me. I wrap my arms around him and he wraps his around me. When we pull away, I yank his sword out of his grasp and hand it to Austin who runs in the opposite direction with it. "Argh, gimme back me sword!" Dez runs after him.

"No! You're going insane!" I hear Austin shout. "You don't need this sword!"

"Wait, is Dez talking about that weird, rubber, purple heart?" Trish asks me.

I shrug. "I dunno. I guess," I say.

"Yeah, I have that," she tells me.

"_What?!_" I ask. "You do realize you almost got Austin _killed_ because of that heart, right?!"

"Oh. Does the Great Ally Dawson _care_ about Austin?" she asks me.

"No!" I say quickly. "I just don't think he should die over something that isn't his fault."

"If you say so," Trish says. As we walk past her neighborhood, she says, "I'll see you tomorrow at the mall."

"You aren't going to school tomorrow?" I ask.

"Ally, today is Friday," she tells me.

"Oh," I say.

"I think Austin's getting to you," she says, ruffling my hair, "making you go insane."

* * *

I lie in bed, staring at the dark ceiling. I wonder if Austin gave Dez back his sword. I wonder if Dez killed Austin with his sword.

Highly unlikely, I know. But I haven't seen him since he ran off with Dez's sword. He didn't come over or anything. I did see Mimi though. Her and my mom had been doing errands, like I thought. They must've been hilarious because they kept giggling when they told me. They didn't go into detail though.

And I had a feeling I didn't want to know them.

I fall asleep.

_It's 5am and I can't sleep. Everything's in black and white. For some reason, I'm reading the phone book. The grey morning light shines through my window onto Austin's name._

_It says he isn't alone._

_Five minutes before, I remember Austin leaving my room angrily. He said our love was a prison, a handicap. He told me, "Goodbye." He said it as if it were the period to his sentence. As I walk to my balcony, my room turns into a prison cell, and I feel like I'm in Alcatraz._

_I look out my window and see the rocky waters. I see a cliff. It holds Austin and a stranger. Austin's pushed and he falls to his death as he hits his head on a sharp rock in the water. I try to scream, but all that comes out is a squeak. "Suicide..." the walls in my prison cell whisper. "It was suicide..."_

_"It was murder!" I shout. "It was murder."_

_Why was he killed though? I hear mission bells ringing somewhere higher. I let him get away._

_I feel like the end of a Hitchcock movie. A little dark and a lot confusing. We were the last of the worst pretenders, so lost in love._

I wake up, hot, sweaty, and gasping for breath. I feel around in the darkness. The first thing my fingers hit is a pencil. And then my songbook. I scribble down a bunch of words on one page, front and back. I'm not sure what I wrote, but it felt important. I put my book and my pencil down. I feel around again and find my phone.

I dial a number and press call. "Hello?" a groggy voice answers after about two rings.

"Austin?" I ask. "Austin!"

"Ally?" he asks, seemingly more alert now. "What are you doing up?" He pauses. "It's 3 in the morning. What's wrong? Are you okay?"

The walls are still whispering, "_Suicide._" "It was murder!" I exclaim.

"What?" Austin asks. "Ally, I think you should go back to bed."

"No, don't leave," I say quickly, grasping my phone with both hands, as if that'll make him stay on. "Just don't leave. I need to make sure you're okay."

"I'm fine. It's you we should be worrying about," he says.

"I don't believe you," I whisper. "Austin, listen. I had a dream you died and... I just want you..." I trail off as the voices close in on my head. I let out a high-pitched moan, clutching my head. They're giving me a headache.

"Ally? Are you okay?" Austin asks again.

They come from all around now, up, down, right, left. _Everywhere._ _"Suicide..." "Suicide..." "Suicide..." "Suicide..."_ They overlap, making my headache worse.

I groan again, dropping my phone and trying to massage my temples. The whispers just get louder and they multiply. I hear Austin say something and the line goes dead. "No!" They got Austin! I fall to the floor, looking for my phone. I can't see a thing.

I blink, trying to make my eyes adjust to the darkness. Finally, I can see the outline of most of the things in my room, but I still can't see my phone. I keep looking.

_"Suicide, suicide, suicide, suicide..."_

I'm going insane! I groan, moan, and lash out on the air in front of me, trying to make the voices, that I know are in my head, shut up. I hear a tap on my balcony door. They're coming for me now... I whimper as I back up until my back hits my bed. The lock slowly unlocks itself and the door opens.

I see the outline of a tall, dark figure. He closes the door behind him and makes his way across the room. He kneels in front of me and I try to shrink down, try to make myself disappear. "I'm not ready to die," I whisper. I notice I've started crying.

"You're not gonna die," someone says.

"How can you say that after you killed Austin?" I ask.

"What?" they ask. "Ally, it's me. It's Austin."

"You're lying," I say, my voice wavering.

"You don't believe me?" the voice asks me.

"No," I say quietly.

The figure takes something out of his pocket and I jump. It could be anything. "Don't," I whisper, shaking my head. A light comes from the object they took from their pocket. They shine the light on their face and I see that it _is_ Austin. I lunge forward and wrap my arms around his neck. He puts his around my waist.

"Oh, my God," I say. "You're alive."

"Of course I'm alive," he says into my ear. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, I had that dream, and then the line went dead and—"

"This isn't a dream," he tells me. "This is real life. And I hung up. I told you I was coming and I hung up. The line didn't go dead, Ally."

I start shaking. "I'm sorry," I whisper. He tightens his grip on my waist and I tighten mine as well.

"Don't be sorry," he says. "You had a bad dream and it scared you. I have dreams like that all the time."

"Really?" I ask. "What do you have bad dreams about?"

"I'd rather not say," he tells me. "But they're a little like yours."

"Later?" I ask, sniffling.

"Later," he promises.

I nod. I squeeze my eyes shut as my headache fades. When I found out it really was Austin, the voices all stopped at once. Austin picks me up and sits down on my bed with me in his lap.

"You know what?" Austin asks. "I bet Dez made you have that bad dream. You were freaking out about him making me bleed. Maybe you thought he could've killed me."

"Yeah." I nod. I rest my head on his shoulder. "Don't die," I say. "Don't ever die."

"I'll have to some day," he reminds me.

"Don't let it be murder. Don't let it be suicide. Let it be natural causes," I say. "Promise?"

"Promise." He swallows. "So what happened in your dream?"

I recount every little detail of my dream to him. "So someone pushed me into the rocky waters off Alcatraz? Why were you in prison in the first place?" he asks.

I shake my head. "No clue."

"Wait, did you say that I said our love was a prison?" he asks. I nod. "Maybe that's the Alcatraz part." I hear something and I jump. I struggle to get out of Austin's arms, but he just holds me tight.

"Ally, calm down. It was just..." He pauses, leaning down to pick something up. "... this book. A book fell."

"The light," I say. "I need to turn the light on." I manage to get out of his arms this time and I turn it on. "Don't touch my book," I say, snatching it from his grasp.

"What kind of book is that?" he asks me. "Why is it so important?"

I don't answer him. I just flip to the last page and look at what I wrote in the dark. It's surprisingly neat and it's a song. I want to sing it. But I glance at Austin... and realize that it's 3 in the morning.

Reality hits me at the same moment. Austin... is in my room... on my bed... at three in the morning...

"You can..." _go now._ But I don't want him to. If he leaves my room, he'll die. Well, that's what my mind is telling me. I know he won't, but...

"I can what?" Austin asks me.

I'll sing it at work tomorrow. "Nothing," I say. "I was going to say you can go now but..." I just trail off.

"You don't want me to." It was a statement. Not a question. He _knew_.

I get onto my bed and sit at the head of it, my back on the wall.

"I won't." He takes off his sneakers and pulls his feet up onto my bed. I actually look at him and take in his clothes. He's wearing pajama pants with fire trucks on them. But his shirt is just a white T-shirt. And if you look closely enough, you can see stains that look a little like ketchup.

"Are you wearing my blood shirt?" I ask, a look of disgust crossing my face.

"I washed it!" he says.

"That's disgusting," I tell him.

He rolls his eyes. "It was warm," he says. "I had just taken it out of the dryer and my house was freezing. So I put it on. Chill."

"Are you _sure_ you didn't put it on just because you're in love with me and wanted to wear something I'd used?" I joke.

"Maybe I did," he jokes back, on his hands and knees now, close to my face. He looks my face over once, twice. "You know, you could kiss me if you wanted."

**If you're wondering how I got Austin's football number, I just added up all of the letters in Ally's name. A1 L2 L3 Y4 S5 O6 N7 M8 A9 R10 I11 E12 D13 A14 W15 S16 O17 N18**

**Anyhoodles, we the internet guys lied. They won't be coming until this Wednesday. Possibly. They said last Wednesday. Then they moved it to Thursday. Now it's Wednesday. I wouldn't be surprised if the internet didn't come until next month. -_- Anyway, I'm going to upload some more chapters to my Document Manager so I can possibly update tomorrow. Anyhoodles, review!**

**LoVe, KeNzIe**


	5. Chapter 5

"Maybe I will," I say.

"Oh, yeah?" he asks, challenging me.

"Yeah," I spit, almost angrily.

"Then why don't you do it?" he asks me.

"Maybe I don't wanna," I say, pushing my eyebrows together in frustration.

"I thought you said you would," he says.

"I did. Doesn't mean I want to," I say firmly.

"So what you're saying is that you're scared," he fires back.

"I'm not scared," I retaliate. "I've done it before."

"Oh, really? Name _one time_ you kissed me," he says. "And when I say you kissed me, I mean you started the kiss."

I open my mouth to name one time, but I'm at a loss. "That time, yesterday, when I told my mom I was busy and then I—"

"Doesn't count," he says.

"That totally counts!"

"No, it doesn't," he tells me. "You were just _continuing_ the kiss that _I_ started."

"Fine. How about when..." I trail off. I haven't started one of our kisses. It was always him. "It isn't fair. You just have a better sense of hearing than I do. You know when someone's about to walk in and you seem to know that they want to talk about the wedding stuff."

"How do you know I don't just want to kiss you?" Austin asks me. That shuts me up. "How do you know that we don't just get lucky that our moms walk in?"

"Actually. You remember that time I started the kiss?" I ask.

He shakes his head. "When was that?"

"Right now," I tell him. I put my hands on either side of his face and pull him a few inches forward. I feel Austin's tongue graze across my lips. I open them and allow him inside. It hurts my bottom lip a little, since it's _just_ starting to close up. _Don't breathe in, Ally. Don't breathe in._ When I need a breath, I break away from Austin.

"Okay," he says, grinning and shaking his head. "You are way too easy, Allyson."

"You're a jerk," I say, shoving him hard in chest. Geez, my lip hurts now. I must've irritated the sore when I kissed Austin. He doesn't seem to mind that he kissed a disgusting lip though. He laughs and sits back down. "Go home. I don't even care anymore. Get murdered. See if I fucking care!" I throw my hands up in frustration.

Austin frowns, all traces of a grin gone. "Oh. Okay," he says, standing up and slipping his sneakers on. He's at my balcony door in half a second.

"Austin, no, don't leave," I say, standing up. I run to the door in time to watch him jump over the railing. "Austin, I didn't mean it," I call into my dimly-lit front yard. Austin's still close so the flood lights are still shining on him. "Come back. Please. Austin!"

"No, it's fine, Ally. I'm just gonna go out and get murdered. I _live_ to make you happy," he says, sarcastically, putting his hand over his heart. "So if getting murdered does that, then, hell, who needs a long, happy life anyway?! Not me! Life is for losers anyway! No one needs it!"

"Austin, stop it," I say quietly, trying to swallow a lump in my throat. I sink to my knees and look through the bars that hold up the banister. "That isn't funny, Austin."

"Well, it seems to amuse you!" He starts to walk away.

"Austin, get your ass back up here." I meant for it to come out angrily, but, honestly, it was so weak that I'm not even sure he heard. I raise my voice as much as I can, so that he'll hear it. "If you don't get back up here, I'll—I'll—I'll give handies to Wilson until I'm strong enough to beat you up."

Austin stops abruptly. He turns around and walks back into the light, pointing a finger at me. "Now that isn't funny at all. That's—That's just downright insulting."

"I'll do it," I threaten him. "You think I won't?"

I walk back into my room, grabbing a jacket and pulling it on. I walk downstairs and out the door. I start down the sidewalk. Austin catches up to me in a second. "Where are you going?" he asks me.

"Wilson's house," I tell him.

"You don't know where he lives," he says.

"Oh, I don't, do I? Few years ago, he dated a friend of mine before he got popular. She and I used to go to his house all the time," I explain to him.

"You're bluffing," he accuses me.

"If I were bluffing, I'd stop to talk to you," I tell him. "I wouldn't keep walking. Does that make sense?" Austin nods. "Thought so. Now I know that Wilson never sleeps. He stays up all night, exercising. Do you know what he benches? A lot. I can't remember exactly, but he benches _a lot_.

"He's _huge_. In more ways than one. I think he'll _always_ be bigger than you. In more ways than one. And he'll always be better than you. _In more ways than one_."

I'm trying to make Austin feel bad and yell at me and come back to my house. I'm hoping he'll blow up before we get to Wilson's house. He seems to be standing his ground though. I guess he really thinks I'm bluffing. Ha. Ally Dawson doesn't bluff. Most of the time.

Unfortunately, I run out of things to say about Wilson and we reach his house quickly. I remember him saying that his parents are heavy sleepers so I knock on the door.

"Ally," Austin says but I ignore him.

Wilson opens the door, towering over Austin and I both. His muscles are bulging and he's holding a large dumbbell in one hand. "Wilson, hi! Do you remember me?" I ask him.

"Ally!" he exclaims. He drops the dumbbell, picks me up, and spins me around. The breath is knocked out of me. "Haven't seen you in forever! Why don't you and Whitney come by anymore? I mean, I know we broke up, but I really enjoyed your company."

"Well, you got popular!" I say as he sets me down. "And Whitney and I aren't really friends anymore..."

"Why not?" Wilson asks.

"Oh, you know... creative differences... fights... Jeremy Weller," I say.

"Oh, man, she got him, didn't she?" he asks.

"Yeah," I mutter. "She told me the reason I didn't was because I was too fat and too ugly."

"Please, Ally, it's pretty much impossible for you to gain weight and you have a show-stopping face! Any guy would be lucky to have you," Wilson promises me. I smile and look down, blushing a little. "So what's up? Why are you here at—" He looks at his watch. "Jesus, Ally—four in the morning?"

"I... I need to do something," I tell him.

"And what's that?" Wilson asks.

"Ally, you don't have to do this," Austin says.

"Monica!" Wilson exclaims, looking around me at Austin. "Didn't even see you there! What are you doing here with Ally-Cat?"

Austin doesn't say anything. "Yeah, so about that thing I need to do..."

"What is it?" Wilson asks me.

"Uh..." I don't know how to ask him to let me give him a handjob. I especially don't know how to tell him that I'm just doing it to make Austin mad without Austin knowing. I could use the "sexy approach" girls sometimes use. You know, when girls lean up and whisper something sexy in the guy's ear. I lean up on tiptoes and put my lips close to Wilson's ears.

"Listen," I whisper to him, "I told Austin I was going to come over here and give you a handjob, but I only said it because I wanted to piss him off. I told him I wasn't bluffing and, well, here we are. So I'd really appreciate it if you pretended to invite me inside to... you know..." I stand up straight and look up at him.

Wilson's face melts into a smile. "Of course, Ally-Cat," Wilson says to me. "Come on inside and we can... uh..." He glances at Austin. "... get started."

"Awesome," I say. I start to walk inside. I look back over my shoulder at Austin. He has his hands shoved into his pockets. He shrugs at me as if to say, "Go on in. See if I care." I walk the rest of the way inside and close the door behind me.

"Wow," Wilson says as we walk down the hall. "I really thought he was going to try to stop you."

"Yeah," I say. "Guess I underestimated him..."

"So aren't you guys getting married?" he asks me. "I heard that around school and wanted you to confirm or deny it."

"No, it's true..." I mutter. "Our parents are forcing us to."

"Oh, that sucks," Wilson says. "But, you know, that just makes this situation even worse."

"I know, right?!" I say. "Austin is a terrible fian—"

I'm cut off by a knock on the front door. "I guess he isn't as terrible as we think he is," Wilson tells me, turning around and walking back to the door. I follow behind him. Wilson opens the door.

As soon as it's open, Austin grabs my arm and pulls me through the door. "Maybe another time, Wilson. Ally and I can do... that... on our own, thanks," Austin says. He reaches forward and pulls Wilson's door closed. "See you after school Monday," he says before he pulls it completely shut. "What the hell is your problem?" Austin asks me as we walk back toward our house.

"I told you I wasn't bluffing," is all I say.

"Well, next time, could you just bluff?"

* * *

"Honestly, Ally, you're an awful—"

I close the door to my room and turn on him. "Excuse me? Don't _even_, Austin. You're the one who was about to just let me. Can I tell you the truth, Austin?" I ask.

He nods. "Be my guest." He sits down on my bed and lies back.

"I _was_ bluffing," I tell him. He sits up straight and looks me in the eye, waiting for my next sentences. "I was hoping you'd turn me around and bring me back here. I didn't even think you'd let me get all the way to Wilson's house. I think we've both done bad things tonight. Now get off of my bed. Go home, Austin. Don't get yourself killed; just go the hell home."

"Wh—What if I get murdered?" Austin asks me, standing up with wide eyes. Not the surprised kind of wide; the small child wide.

I look away from him, unable to stand it. I climb into bed and cover myself up with the blanket. "Call the police," I answer. "Oh, turn off the light on your way out please." Suddenly, I'm bathed in darkness and I hear the door open. After a few moments, it closes again and I'm sure Austin's gone. The highlights of my dream—mostly the creepy parts and the part where Austin was murdered—come rushing back to me. "God, please, don't let Austin get murdered..." I whisper to my ceiling.

I feel a weight on my bed and then I feel arms wrap around me. "I won't get murdered," Austin promises me, "because I'm staying right here. On request."

One side of my mouth comes up in a half-smile. "You scared me; I could've had a heart attack. You're a dick, you know that?" I ask.

"I know," Austin says simply.

"Are you a dick on purpose?" I ask.

"Mm, sometimes," he tells me.

The other side of my mouth tilts up and I melt backward into his chest.

* * *

I wake up on top of Austin's chest. Our bodies are almost parallel and our legs are wrapped around each other's. I see that I've drooled a bit on his shirt as I raise my head.

I look at Austin's face and see that he's cuter sleeping than he is awake. I rise onto my knees, still on top of Austin, and I push myself up. "No!" he suddenly shouts, scaring me. Austin's arms tighten around my waist, pulling my torso back down. "Dallas, no! Stop it! Ally's mi—!" His eyes shoot open and they stare into mine. He's out of breath.

"Uh, morning," I say.

"Hi," he manages after a few moments.

"You okay?" I ask.

He nods. "I'm fine," he answers.

"Okay... Can you let go of me now?" I ask. "This is really uncomfortable."

"Sure," he says. He releases me from his grasp and I stand up, feeling a little awkward.

"I have to get to work," I tell him.

"What am I supposed to do?" he asks me.

"Leave?" I suggest questioningly.

"No, I mean, I have nothing planned for today," he tells me.

"So?"

"So, what should I do?" he asks.

I'm going to regret saying this. "You can come to work with me," I say.

"Really?!" he asks me. "You never let me come to work with you!"

"That's because, last time you came, you and Dez ruined half the store!" I remind him.

"I tripped!" Austin says in his defense.

"Don't trip this time," I mutter. "You go home and get dressed. I will, too, and I'll come over. We can go together."

"Sounds good," he says. He sits up and pulls on his sneakers. Then he stands up and leaves my room, saying, "Later."

I walk into my closet. I pull on a black blouse with a blue jean skirt and a pair of wedges. I walk to the bathroom to brush my teeth and do my hair. I spray a few sprays of strawberry-smelling perfume.

"Okay," I whisper to myself as I glance at myself in the mirror. I grab my phone and my songbook and walk over to Austin's house. He's sitting on his front porch steps, waiting for me. He's wearing holey, dark-washed jeans with a chain coming from the pocket and a red T-shirt. He's put back on his yellow Converse that he was wearing before he left.

"You have that book again," Austin notices, staring at it. He stands up and we walk toward my mom's car. She probably car-pooled with Mimi so she could leave it for me. "What is it?"

"A book," I answer, "my favorite book."

"What's it about?" Austin asks me.

"Everything," I tell him. We climb into Mom's car. As I turn it on, Austin continues with his questions.

"What do you mean, everything?"

"It's... sort of an autobiography," I say.

"About who?"

"Could you calm down with the stupid questions?" I explode. "It's a book that's still being written and it'll never be published."

"A diary?" Austin asks, a grin appearing on his face. "Your diary?"

I roll my eyes and start driving. When I pull out onto a busy road, Austin reaches over and grabs my book. "Austin!" I shout, trying to keep my eyes on the road and snatch my book from him at the same time. "Gimme my book!"

"'Austin... Austin... Austin...'" Austin reads as he flips through the pages. "Gee, Ally, you write about me a lot. Are you _in love_ with me or something?" he teases.

"I don't write about you that much! If I write about you a lot, it's because I'm writing about something you've done to piss me off!" I yell. "And I'll write about this later!"

"Hold on," Austin says. "Is this what I think it is?" He gasps. "A _song_?! Allyson Dawson wrote a _song_?! Why, I never..."

"Don't. Read. That." I almost swerve off the road because of the anger I'm feeling.

"And if I do?" he asks.

"If you read that, I'll hate you forever and I'll never talk to you again and I'll just die," I tell him.

He doesn't say anything for a moment. He starts flipping through the pages again. "Geez, I'm not even reading them and I see the word 'love' or something like that in them," he says. "Wait... This first part sounds familiar..." He takes a deep breath. "I had a dream you died," he sings. "And I just wanna be with you tonight." He just took a guess at the tune. And he guessed correctly. This is the tune I had stuck in my head yesterday. I guess that's where he got it from. He reads it through. "Hey, isn't that the part you were singing yesterday?"

"Isn't that where you got the tune from?" I ask.

Austin shakes his head. "No, I just thought it sounded good," he tells me. "But I just read that part and I guess that is where I got it from. Mission bells were ringin' somewhere higher," he continues. "I let you get away. Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. I let you get away. Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh."

"Hey!" I exclaim. "Don't go adding _oh_'s and _whoa_'s to my song. I write the songs. I decide whether or not I think the _oh_'s and _whoa_'s are necessary."

"Isn't that what you said to me last night?" Austin asks. "Or this morning, really. You said, 'I had a dream you died. And I just want to be with you...' Isn't that what you said?"

"Yes, it's what I said!" I say, frustrated now. "Gimme my damn book." I snatch it from him and slide it under my thigh.

Austin tilts his head, smiling at me. "You wrote a song about me," he says. "I'm touched. Really."

"It isn't..." _about you._ But it is. "Whatever."

"That's cute," he tells me. "You wrote a song about the love of your life."

I pull over to the side of the road. "Get out," I say.

"What?"

"Did I stutter?" I ask.

"But—"

"Out!" I say. "You read my book, you read my diary entries, and you read one of my songs! You violated my privacy. _Get. Out!_" I look at him with angry eyes.

He opens the door quickly and practically falls out of the car. I reach over and close the door, driving away. Unfortunately, we're pretty close to the mall so he won't have to walk very far. I feel like screaming as I pull into the mall parking lot. I can't believe I let him spend the night. That was a huge mistake. I let my guard down and now the enemy soldiers—Austin—have gotten in and killed me.

I walk into Sonic Boom and see Trish waiting for me by the counter where my dad is working. "Hey, Dad, I'm here for my shift," I tell him.

"Oh, thank the Lord," he says. "They're having a sale in the food court and I wouldn't wanna miss it!" He runs out of Sonic Boom and I walk behind the counter.

Trish takes one look at me and asks, "What's got you in a bad mood?"

"Austin had my book," I mutter. "He read my diary and he skimmed through and read some of my songs. I warned him that if he read one of my songs that I'd hate him forever and never talk to him again. And I'm sticking to that."

"You're not gonna talk to him anymore?" she asks me. "And you _hate_ him? How? How do you manage that? Can I have him? How are you not gonna talk to him? You're together, like, 24/7."

I don't think she thought I heard that question about letting her have him. "You can have him," I tell her. "And it won't be that hard. I'll just pretend, around my parents, that I'm too distracted by our love to speak. Blech."

"If you think that'll work..." Trish says.

"It will! I'll be fine," I say. It's about ten minutes before Austin walks in, dripping with sweat.

"How could you just _leave me_ on the side of the road?" Austin asks me, stomping up to the counter. Trish stifles a giggle. "It's a hundred _thousand_ degrees out!" I don't say a word. "Ally!" he shouts. "Say something!"

I nudge Trish. "Ally isn't speaking to you," she tells him.

"What?" Austin asks. "Why not?"

"Because you read one of her songs," Trish explains. "And she warned you that she'd never talk to you again if you read her songs. And you did it anyway."

I lean closer to Trish. "He even sang it," I whisper to her.

"You even sang it!" Trish exclaims, throwing up her hands. "You should be ashamed of yourself, Mister. You know how Ally is about her private things. And you know that she's probably dying inside right now of embarrassment!"

"It was a song about me though," Austin tells her.

"Even worse!" Trish shouts.

"How was I _not_ supposed to read it?"

What Austin said finally registers in her mind and she looks at him blankly. "Excuse us." She looks at me. "You wrote a song about him?"

"I didn't mean to," I whisper to her.

"That is so—" I shoot her a look. "—not cute. That isn't cute at all." She looks back at Austin and jabs a finger into his chest, walking forward, making Austin walk backwards, as she speaks to him. "You don't _read_ Ally's book." _Jab._ "You don't _touch_ Ally's book." _Jab_. "You don't _look_ at Ally's book." _Jab_. "You don't even _think_ about Ally's book." _Jab_. Austin's back hits the door. "You got that?" Trish asks him.

"Got it," he says quickly.

"Good," she says. "You're sweaty."

"Thanks," Austin says, rolling his eyes. "Do I have permission to think about Ally's book one more time? I have to apologize..."

"_No!_" Trish screams.

Austin jumps. "Uh, okay, I'm gonna go to the bathroom and take a shower... type thing," he says, beginning to walk to the back to the bathroom. He grins as he turns to look at me. "I know how Ally doesn't like _sweaty guys_."

"Ugh!" I groan. I pick up the bowl of guitar picks and throw it at Austin's head. He runs to the bathroom, and the bowl misses, hitting the wall and shattering into a million tiny pieces. "I can't _stand_ him," I tell Trish. "He read that in my diary."

I walk to the back with a broom and a dustpan. Setting the items aside for now, I start picking up the larger shards of glass. I hope he didn't read some of the diary entries. I've written a few things about him that I'd never say to his face. And I know he's going to use that against me.

Tears begin to roll down my cheeks. It takes me a minute to realize that the tears are because I'm in pain. I've been angrily squeezing the glass shards and there are a few cuts in my hands now. Austin could've read some of my deepest darkest secrets. The thought of that brings more tears to my eyes, a different kind of tears, sad tears.

I let out small crying noises. I don't like those crying noises. They make me sad. They make me want to cry more—that is, if I'm the one crying.

Just then, the bathroom door opens. Austin looks around and his eyes land on me. His blond hair looks brown at the tips from where they're drenched with water. It's stuck to his face. He isn't wearing a shirt and his entire upper half is wet too.

"Ally, are you crying?" he asks me. I ignore him and pour the large glass shards into the dustpan. He notices that they have blood on them. "Trish, what kind of friend are you? Ally's over here bleeding and crying!"

"I didn't notice!" Trish exclaims and she runs over to me. "Ally, what's wrong?" I just point to the glass and then I point to Austin. "You're bleeding because you were mad and now you're crying because Austin read your book?" I nod.

"How did you—?" Austin starts to ask, but Trish cuts him off.

"Hush," Trish says. "I think you should leave."

"But I haven't gotten the chance to say that I'm sorry!" he exclaims.

"You don't get to say sorry," Trish tells him. "Don't you get it? Ally hates you. She's never gonna talk to you again. Did you not listen to her warning?"

"I didn't think it was real!" Austin says. "I was just teasing her. I thought her songs would be pretty good, so I figured, 'What the heck?' And I read one and I found out I was right. I thought she knew that so I thought she wouldn't care." Austin turns to me. "Can I at least have a hug before I go?" he asks me.

I roll my eyes and cross my arms over my chest, ignoring the sting in my hands as the cuts touch the fabric. I mumble something incomprehensible to even me.

"Please?" Austin asks. "I'll leave you alone for the rest of forever. And when we get married—if we get married—I won't ever make you have sex with me."

I look at him, my mouth wide and my eyebrows knitted together in anger. Did he really think we were going to have sex if this wedding thing came through? God, he's such an idiot.

"That was the wrong thing to say," he notices. "Um, I'll give you..." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his wallet. He counts out all of the money inside. "... fifty bucks." I look away from him. "Come on, Ally," he adds when I hesitate. "This is all I have. I'll literally give you everything I have on me if you just give me a hug." He empties out his pockets and I figure he put on some jeans he's already worn this week.

He pulls out his wallet, cinnamon-flavored gum, his watch (I'm not entirely sure why he wasn't wearing it though), his phone, a coupon (which is one punch away from getting a free ice cream!), five extra dollars, earphones, and a receipt for a video game.

"Geez, do you have Narnia in there too?" Trish asks, looking at all the things he's spread out on the grand piano.

"Not today," Austin says, sounding completely serious. "So?" He looks at me.

I look down at the many items. I grab the gum (so that he can't use it against me anymore... until he buys more...), the ice cream coupon, the five dollar bill, and the earphones. I slide the rest of the pile back to him.

"You don't want the fifty bucks?" he asks, about to put it back into his wallet. I shake my head. I shove items I grabbed into the pockets of my skirt and open my arms. Not wide, but wide enough for Austin to slip into.

And he does. Okay, so this is just gonna be a quick hug. He slides his arms around my waist, squeezes me gently, and then he's on his—I breathe in through my nose.

He did this on purpose. He knew he smelled like cinnamon. He knew it would drive me crazy. He knew. He freaking knew.

Austin starts to pull away, but I don't let him. I hold on to him more tightly, sniffing the cinnamon continuously. I wonder if this is bad for my brain cells, like other drugs. I'll have to check up on that...

"Oh, wipe that smirk off your face," Trish says to Austin. "You're not gonna grope her or anything while I'm back here!"

"That's not what I'm smirking about," Austin replies, and I hear his grin getting wider.

I close my eyes, push out as much air as I can, and step away from Austin, not breathing in until I'm a full three feet away from him. I think another foot will do it. I step back. That's better.

"So, Ally, are you _sure_ you don't want to forgive me?" Austin asks, breathing out as much as possible.

"I'm sure," I say... in my mind. But all that actually came out was a squeak that kind of sounded like, "No." If I hadn't forgiven him, I wouldn't even have said a word to him. Duh, Ally.

"So... you forgive me," he concludes, stepping two steps closer to me.

I sigh. "Yeah, I forgive you," I mutter, turning my head away from him to breathe. "I mean, I'm sure Trish has read it before."

"What?" she says in a high-pitched voice before turning away from me.

"We're good, right?" Austin asks me.

"Yeah," I say, "we're good. Now go put your shirt back on." I had just realized that I hugged a shirtless Austin.

That fact alone was bugging me a year's worth of bugging.

He just chuckles. "All right," he says, walking back into the bathroom.

I realize Austin has two things on me while I only have one. Austin has the cinnamon scent that intoxicates me and the child eyes that make me want to cry. I have the anger that scares him. Austin—2; Ally—1.

He walks out and sniffs the air of Sonic Boom. He cocks his head to the side like a confused puppy, and raises an eyebrow.

He asks, "Is anyone else craving... strawberries?"

**Sorry I haven't updated. You know how I said I was supposed to be getting internet Wednesday? Well, apparently, there's too many trees around my house for a good connection. Fml. -_- So I'll try to get a trip to McDonald's in at least once a week. But I've been writing a lot so I have three more chapters ready for you. I'll give you one more tonight... Unless you'd like two? Hm? Review and tell me if you want one or two. xD**

**LoVe, KeNzIe**


	6. Chapter 6

He asks, "Is anyone else craving... strawberries?" Trish and I shake our heads. He sniffs again. "Or is it just me?"

"It's just you," Trish says.

"Are you sure?" Austin asks, trying to find the source of the smell.

"We're sure," I tell him.

"If you guys say so," he says. He walks up to the counter and hops up onto it.

I finish cleaning up the glass. I wash the dried blood from my hands and make sure there's no shards of glass stuck in the cuts. There's not.

"So, Ally," Austin says, as Trish and I walk back over to the counter, "you wanna play that song now?"

"No, I'm gonna play it later," I tell him, "when you aren't around."

"Why?" he asks. "You'll have to get comfortable around me sometime."

"I _am_ comfortable around you!" I exclaim. I blink, realizing exactly what I just said. I try to sink back into my I-Hate-Austin ways. "I mean, I'm not comfortable around you. All I do is tolerate you. Nothing more, nothing less."

"Let me repeat my statement then," Austin says. "You'll have to get comfortable around me sometime. And the easiest way for you to do that is through music."

"How would _you_ know?" I ask.

"Ally, how many times do I have to tell you?" Austin asks me. "I know you like I know my own name. In fact, I may even know you better than _you_ know you. So I think I'd know that you're most comfortable when you're playing music. Even before I knew you wrote songs, you've always seemed so relaxed and comfortable when you're playing your piano."

"Shut up," I mutter.

"Why?"

"Just shut up!" I shout. "You're not allowed to know me this well! This isn't normal! This is best friend stuff. This is—This is—"

"You know, Ally, if we hadn't gotten into that fight when we first met, we probably would be best friends right now," he tells me. "So it's completely normal for me to know you as if you were my best friend."

"It's your fault," I tell him. "You took my juice box."

"And?" he asks. "That's what normal little kids do if they like someone. They act like an ass. They take juice boxes, they punch, they kick, they act like they hate the other."

"Wait, are you saying you liked me?" I ask, everything he said sinking into my brain and etching themselves across my line of vision.

Austin just shrugs. "I dunno," he says. "Maybe I did. Maybe I didn't. Why do you care?"

"I—Well, it would change everything, wouldn't it?" I ask.

"Change everything? How would it change everything?" he asks. A grin—a borderline smirk—appears on his face. "Unless you liked me back."

I stutter, random bits and pieces of words coming out of my mouth. "No!" I exclaim. "I didn't like you. You came into my room, acting like you owned the damn place and took my juice box! I hated you!"

"That's a bit childish, don't you think?" Austin asks me. "Hating me over a juice box?"

"That isn't why I hate you now!" I tell him. "You act like I still owe you for not telling on me and getting me in trouble! You hold it over my head! _That's_ why I hate you now!"

His eyes bore into mine. "Allyson, you realize that if I told on you now, it wouldn't really matter. You wouldn't get in trouble. You only do the things I ask you to do because you want to do them." I try to cut him off, but he just keeps talking. "I don't _make_ you do anything. You do the things of your own free will. All I'm doing is waiting for the day when you fight back." How is he so calm right now? I start to say something again, but Austin shakes his head. "Don't try to say anything. You'll lose this battle."

I roll my eyes. "You may have won the battle, but you're gonna lose the war," I mutter.

"Really now?" he asks. "And what exactly are we at war over?"

"What do you think?" I ask, finally able to be as cool and collected as he is. Trish had sat there quietly through our entire conversation, but she finally speaks up.

"You guys seem to fight a lot," she says.

"You don't know the half of it," I tell her. "We had this huge fight last night over—" I break off as I look at Austin's face.

I think Cassidy's cheating really hurt him deep. Maybe it wasn't the fact that he had liked Cassidy a lot, but the fact that there was cheating in their relationship.

"—something stupid," I finish lamely.

"Oh, Trish," Austin says, turning to loom at her. "I think there's something Ally wants to tell you about last night."

I stare at him blankly. "What is it?" Trish asks me. I know he doesn't want me telling her about the cheating thing.

"Two things, actually," Austin says.

"Well, spit it out!" Trish snaps at me.

"What are you talking about?" I ask Austin.

"Ally, here, had a dream about me," Austin tells Trish. "She had a dream I died and she got extremely scared." Trish smiles at me, and I know exactly what she's thinking: _Oh, you had a dream about him and you were scared he was gonna die in real life! That's true love right there!_ "That's not even the best part," Austin continues, "she wanted me to spend the night."

Trish is completely fascinated now. "And did you?" she asks him.

"Oh, yeah," Austin says. "Should I tell her about the other part?" Austin turns to me. "The part before we went to sleep?"

"Tell me, tell me, tell me!" Trish exclaims, gossiping a habit for her.

"I didn't think you'd want to talk about that," I tell him.

He stares at me, confused, for a moment before he realizes I'm talking about the Wilson thing. "No, no, no," he says, "not that thing. The thing before that. The thing that started that other thing."

"Will someone just tell me the thing?!" Trish yells, frustrated.

"Ally kissed me," Austin says, without my permission. Trish's face lights up. "I mean, I'm talking full-on, tongue-on-tongue _make out_. And it wasn't because our parents were around or anything. She did it because she wanted to." Trish squeals excitedly.

"No!" I say. "He's lying! I kissed him because he pissed me off."

"Why would you kiss someone if you were pissed at them?" Trish asks me, not believing that that's the reason I kissed him."

"Well, he thought I was afraid of kissing him, and so we went back and forth, and then he said something about how I never start our kisses so I was annoyed about that so I just kissed him." I look at Austin. "And it was not a _full-on, tongue-on-tongue make-out_."

"It did involve our tongues though," he points out, "did it not?"

"Well, yeah, but—"

"Then it was," he says. He sticks his tongue out at me. "So are you gonna play the song or not?"

"Will you shut up if I play it?" I ask.

He seems to take forever to think about it. "I suppose so..." he says slowly.

"Fine," I say. I walk over to the piano and sit down on the bench, playing the melody I thought of for the song.

_I had a dream you died_

_And I just wanna be_

_With you tonight_

_Mission bells were ringin'_

_Somewhere higher_

_I let you get away..._

_I let you get away..._

"Hold on," Austin stops me. "You didn't like my _oh_s and _whoa_s?"

"Not really," I tell him. Even though they sounded awesome with the song.

"Will you at least try it?" he asks me. "Start over." I roll my eyes and play it again from the beginning.

_I had a dream you died_

_And I just wanna be_

_With you tonight_

_Mission bells were ringin'_

_Somewhere higher_

_I let you get away..._

_Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh..._

_I let you get away..._

_Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh..._

"I think that sounds better," Trish says as I transition into the first verse.

I stop playing. "Can I finish the damn song with no more interruptions?" I ask, turning around on the piano bench to glare at them. "Please? If you guys want to add background singing, then fine. Whatever."

Austin and Trish look at each other and smile. They walk over to the piano and Trish jumps up to sit on the top of the piano. I play the introduction.

**(Austin's and Trish's background words will be in parentheses.)**

_(Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh...)_

_(Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh...)_

_I had a dream you died_

_And I just wanna be_

_With you tonight_

_Mission bells were ringin'_

_Somewhere higher_

_I let you get away..._

_(Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh...)_

_I let you get away..._

_(Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh...)_

_What kind of man misunderstands a woman like you?_

Austin sings the words along with me, acting as if he were apologizing to Trish. I guess for "misunderstanding" her.

_Sees her in black and white?_

_It's 5am and the phonebook says that you're not alone_

_In the cold_

_Grey_

_Morning light_

_The only one that's left to trust..._

_My faithless heart that's wasted us..._

Austin holds his hand over his heart and Trish lies back on the piano, the back of her hand over her forehead.

_I had a dream you died_

Austin caresses Trish's face as he sings my song.

_And I just wanna be_

_With you tonight_

_Mission bells were ringin'_

Austin points up.

_Somewhere higher_

_I let you get away_

_(Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh...)_

_I let you get away_

_(Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh...)_

_What kind of fool thinks love's a prison or a handicap?_

Austin limps around the piano as he stares at Trish, his hand over his "aching" heart.

_Only says goodbye?_

_Sinking fast in the rocky waters off Alcatraz..._

Austin, now on the opposite side of the piano, falls to the ground with his nose plugged.

_His friends said suicide..._

Austin immediately jumps back up and plunges an imaginary knife into his heart. He sticks his tongue out and falls out of sight again.

_The only one that's left to trust..._

_My faithless heart that's wasted us..._

_I had a dream you died..._

Austin stands up and holds his hand out to Trish.

_And I just wanna be_

_With you tonight_

He wraps his arms around Trish and they sway from side to side.

_Mission bells were ringin'_

Austin looks up and Trish does too.

_Somewhere higher_

_I let you get away_

_(Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh...)_

_I let you get away_

_(Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh...)_

I slow down the piano, but keep playing.

_I'm the end of a Hitchcock movie_

_A little dark_

Austin makes an evil face as he pulls away from Trish.

_And a lot confusing_

Now he puts on a confused face.

_I'm the last of the worst pretenders_

_So lost, so lost in love_

Austin and Trish sway together again, looking up, as if in a daze and they let me finish the song with no more theatrics.

_I'm the end of a Hitchcock movie_

_A little dark_

_And a lot confusing_

_I'm the last of the worst pretenders_

_So lost, so lost in love_

_I had a dream you died_

_And I just wanna be_

_With you tonight_

_Mission bells were ringin'_

_Somewhere higher_

_I let you get away_

Trish sings their _oh_s and _whoa_s while Austin repeats the last part I just sang.

_(Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh...)_

_(I'm the end of a Hitchcock movie_

_A little dark_

_And a lot confusing)_

_I let you get away_

_(I'm the last of the worst pretenders_

_So lost, so lost in love)_

_(Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh...)_

_I let you get away_

_(I'm the last of the worst pretenders_

_So lost, so lost in love)_

_(Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh...)_

_(Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh...)_

"Well, that was fun," Trish says. She looks down at Austin's arms around her and blushes a little. Austin looks at me and quickly takes his arms away.

"Yeah, it was," Austin agrees. "We should sign up for the talent show next weekend and perform this song."

"I don't perform," I tell him flatly.

"Well, fine, Trish and I will do it," he says.

"No!" I exclaim. "I mean, um, I'd appreciate it if this song didn't leave Sonic Boom."

"Fine, Ally," Trish says. "This song won't leave Sonic Boom." She smiles a mischievous grin and I get a bit scared. "Well, I'd better get home. I'll see you guys later."

She leaves Sonic Boom and I sit at the piano for a moment before turning to Austin. He's walked up beside me so I grab his arm urgently. "Austin, you have to stop her from signing us up for the talent show!"

"How do you even know that's what she's going to do?" Austin asks me.

"Because I know Trish," I tell him. "Now please go stop her!"

"All right, all right," Austin says. "Chill, Als."

"Don't call me Als," I mutter as he leaves Sonic Boom. I start playing the piano again, just random chords though. After a while, Austin comes back.

"She's pretty fast," he tells me. "I was about ten feet behind her the whole way to the school. And you know _I'm_ a fast runner. Has she ever thought about going out for track and field? My God, she's—"

"Austin!" I exclaim. "What happened?"

"Oh, well, we got to the school and she started to fill out the sign-up sheet, and she'd already filled out the talent part and put my name down. But I stopped her before she could put anything else. But you wanna know something funny?" he asks. I shrug. "Today was the last day to sign up. As Trish and I were arguing about how Ally—I mean you—didn't want to be in the talent show, the talent show manager girl came up and took the sign-up sheet. But here's the funny part: We never got to take my name off. So... I'm in the talent show!"

"How is that funny?" I ask.

"Well, when Trish filled out the talent part... she put 'Self-Written Song' so... I kind of need a song to use," he says. I stare at him.

"Damn it, Austin!" I exclaim, suddenly angry. "I'm not doing _anything_ else for you! You told me not to do anything else you asked so I won't! Write your own song!"

"Ally," Austin says slowly, "Ally, it's okay. I'm not asking you to do anything because you owe me it or anything... All I'm doing is just asking for a favor."

"No."

"Please, Ally! All I need you to do is _help_ me write a song," he says.

I turn back around to face the piano. I place my fingers on the keys as Austin sits beside me on the piano bench. Damned cinnamon. I glance at Austin and see that his thigh is touching mine. I swallow. "No inspiration," I admit.

"Then let me borrow _Mission Bells_," he says.

"Definitely not," I reply.

"Ally!" Austin exclaims. "The talent show is on _Tuesday_!"

"Tough cinnamon," I say. "I mean, tough cookies." I squeeze my eyes shut and I know what Austin's about to do. He leans a little closer and lowers his eyelids a little, making his eyelashes seem longer and his irises seem darker.

"Ally," he says. "Can I please borrow _Mission Bells_?"

I swallow and stand—sit—my ground. "No," I say. "Inspire me."

"Insp—what?" he asks.

"Inspire me," I repeat. "And I'll write you a song."

"How am I supposed to do that?" he asks.

"Depends. If you want a love song, show me love. If you want a sad song, make me cry. If you want a party song—"

"There's a party tonight," he tells me. "Left tackle."

"Is now really the time for football talk?" I ask. "Because I really don't understand it."

"Well, you're learning," he says. "You knew that I was talking about football... But no. What I meant was the guy whose position is left tackle is throwing it. Tommy."

"Oh," I say. "I knew that."

"And you're invited," he tells me.

"Oh, definitely not," I say.

"But you just said—"

"I know what I said! I was hoping you didn't want a party song though," I admit.

"Would you rather write a love song?" he asks me. "Because I can do this." He wraps his arms around me and turns my head to him, kissing me deeply. A moment later, there's a bit of... tongue action. I pull away from him quickly.

"Come by my house at eight," I instruct. "We'll go together."

"Sounds good," he says. "See you then."

He stands up and leaves Sonic Boom. I touch my bottom lip. I shake my head, trying to shake myself out of this daze.

"Ally!" someone exclaims behind me. "Why aren't you watching the store?"

Dad.

"Oh, um, I was playing Austin a song," I tell him.

He looks around. "Okay..." he says hesitantly.

"He was here earlier," I promise, knowing he thinks I'm crazy. "He just left before you came in."

"Oh," he says. "I understand. Did anything... happen?"

"No, Dad!" I say. "Can I go out tonight?"

"Where to?" Dad asks me.

I wonder if he'd let me go if he knew Austin was taking me... "Trish is taking me to a party," I lie.

"Who all will be there?" he asks.

"Probably most of the school," I answer.

"Do Penny and I know the parents?" my dad asks.

"Doubt it."

"How far away from the house is this party?"

"You'll have to ask Trish."

"Will Austin be there?"

"Dad! I'll be fine."

"That's why I'm asking if Austin will be there. I'll need him to protect you from the horny pigs out there."

"Dad!" I shout. "You're embarrassing me."

"We're the only ones in here," he reminds me.

"It's still embarrassing," I say quietly. "But yes, I'm pretty sure Austin will be there. One of his teammates is throwing the party."

"Ah," he replies. "Well, go home and get ready."

I nod. "All right," I say, standing and walking to the door.

"Have fun," he says to me as I walk out of the door and start for home. I notice that the sky is starting to darken. Unsure of the time, I don't know if it's late or if it's about to rain.

**Second chapter tonight! Want one more?**

**LoVe, KeNzIe**

**P.S. The song in this chapter was Mission Bells by Matt Nathanson. Have a nice... rest of the day! :D**

**P.P.S. Angel Princess, I'm officially in love with your name. I don't know why I'm so obsessed with it, but I am. Like, I'm so done right now. :D**


	7. Chapter 7

Once I get home, I head straight for my room and close the door behind me. I take off my shirt as I walk to the closet and I throw it into my dirty clothes bin. It's then that I see my problem.

I have no clue what to wear. I mean, it's a party. I know. But what kind of party? I pick up my phone and call Austin.

"Hello?" he answers.

"Hey, what do I wear?" I ask.

He hesitates, and I know he's rolling his eyes. "Just wear anything. Preferably a skirt though," he says.

"Why a skirt?" I ask.

"Because they look nice," he says. "I don't know. Just wear a skirt. I'll be over in a minute." He hangs up.

_Skirts look nice_, I think to myself as I walk back into my closet, _Skirts look nice._ Oh, now which skirt do I wear? I look at my extensive collection of them.

The doorbell rings and I hear someone running to the door. "I got it!" they call. My mom. Huh, I didn't even know she was home.

About a minute later, someone opens the door to my room. I leave my closet and see Austin standing in my room.

He chuckles and folds his arms over his chest. "Now, Allyson, when I said to wear a skirt, I figured you'd have the common sense to add a shirt to your outfit," he says, looking at my torso. It takes me a moment to figure out why he said that. Then I remember that I pulled my shirt off and never put another one on.

I turn and run into my closet, tripping over nothing. "Ow," I mumble.

"It takes skill to trip over flat surfaces," Austin tells me.

"Shut up." I use my arms to drag myself the rest of the way into my closet. I grab a red blouse pull it over my head. I slide my jeans off, making sure Austin can't see me. Then I put on a red plaid skirt. I step into my brown ankle boots and walk out to show Austin. "Do I look okay?"

Austin looks me up and down once, twice, three times. Then he just nods, seemingly incapable of pronouncing words. I go into the bathroom, sliding my lip gloss wand across my lips. I apply some mascara and walk back out.

"Ready?" I ask.

"Ready," he replies.

We walk down the stairs. "Mom, I'm going to a party!" I call into the seemingly empty house. "Don't wait up!"

"Did you ask Dad if you could go?" she asks.

"Yes, he said I could!" I tell her.

"All right, have fun!" she says.

"I'm using your car, by the way!" I inform her.

"That's fine!"

Austin and I walk out to her car and Austin shows me how to get to Tommy's house. I park outside and look up at the house.

It's completely and totally trashed. People have TP'd it. There's spray-paint on the outside walls (I hope it can be washed off.) There are bras in the bushes and even a few people lying out on the front lawn, half naked.

"We're a little late, but it's not gonna end soon," he tells me. "Come on. Let's get inside."

Austin and I get out of the car. Loud music hits my ears immediately. As we walk across the yard, some guy runs out of the house, completely naked, and runs down the street. I turn away as soon as I notice he isn't wearing a bit of clothing.

"Austin, are you sure about this?" I ask, feeling a little afraid.

"I'm totally sure," he says. "It'll be fine." The volume of the music inside seems like it's enough to blow your eardrums. "Don't drink the punch," Austin advises over the loud music. "Oh, and don't eat the cookies with the green pictures on them. Everything else is fine."

"Got it," I say. "So... what do you do at a party?" I look up at him.

He looks at me as if I'm a stranger who just walked up to him and asked him to help murder some newborn puppies and kittens. "Are you kidding me?" he asks, then he smiles brightly. "You have fun!"

Suddenly, I see a flash of familiar, curly, black hair. "Trish?" I ask, as the blur almost bumps into me. It stops and stares at me. It _is_ Trish! "What are you doing here?"

"This is a Saturday tradition for me!" she exclaims, bouncing up and down with the music. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"Getting inspired," I mutter.

"What?" Trish asks, and I remember the loud music.

"Nothing! I—"

"Ooh, gotta go!" she shouts as some guy pulls off his shirt. She runs in his direction.

"I'm just gonna follow you," I tell Austin. I walk behind Austin as he talks to a few of his friends. Someone grabs my arm and drags me through the crowd. "Hey!" I shout.

Austin turns around. "Ally?" he calls into the crowd. "Ally!" The person who grabbed me pulls me into a room and shuts the door.

Dallas. And he's drunk, I believe.

I look around and see that we're in a small bathroom. It's dimly lit and the walls and floor have white tiles on them. The sink seems clean enough but the toilet has puke all over it and it's got a foul smell that's stinking up the whole bathroom. The music is kind of blocked out. All you can really hear is the beat.

Dallas pushes me up against the wall, breathing his disgusting, alcohol-smelling breath into my face. Honestly, I'd rather have the cinnamon (that'll make me do anything) than this right now.

"Why don't you love me?" Dallas murmurs, his head moving to the side of mine. His lips touch my neck.

"Stop it," I say, trying to shove him away, as he begins to kiss my neck now.

"Tell me why you don't love me," he demands, barely budging as I throw all of my weight against him.

"Because you're too damn clingy," I tell him.

"That isn't enough, Ally," he says slowly. He kisses from the middle of my neck to my earlobe then down my jaw.

"Dallas, stop it!" I exclaim.

"Why?" he asks. "Don't you like it when _Austin_ does this to you?"

"Austin doesn't do this," I tell him. "All he does is kiss me. And I don't even like that."

"So you'd rather me kiss you," he says, kissing my cheek briefly then my lips.

I try to shove him away by the shoulders, but he just keeps kissing me. "Dallas, quit!" I shout into his mouth. He takes this as an opportunity to slide his tongue into my mouth. My eyes widen as his touches mine and I realize that Austin's tongue is sweeter than Dallas's. I punch Dallas's face but he doesn't seem to care.

I kick him in the shins and anywhere else my legs can reach. Dallas's hands slide down over my thighs and he pulls my skirt up and tries to put his hands beneath my underwear.

"Dallas!" I say into his mouth. Once he realizes that he's too drunk to figure out how to place his hands in my underwear, he reaches up a little to the top of my underwear and rips them off. Austin bursts into the bathroom. I make random noises since I know that if I tried to speak, he wouldn't understand a word I was saying. Then I realize how this must look to him.

Dallas's hands on my lower half, his lips on mine, my underwear on the floor. In fact, Austin looks _horrified_ at the sight before him. "I-I'm sorry," he says. "I didn't know I was... interrupting. I thought... Never mind. I'll just..." He points out the door and starts to close it. With a sudden burst of adrenaline, I shove Dallas away from me.

"Austin, no!" I shout before he can close the door all the way. He opens it back quickly and comes back in, only halfway though. "This isn't... what it looks like. Dallas and I weren't... He was just... He's drunk. I thought you said you knew me. You should know I wouldn't... you know..."

"I was hoping," Austin says, coming inside and closing the door behind him. "In that case..." I walk over and stand behind Austin as he goes forward to tower over Dallas.

"Oh, will Austin be joining us?" Dallas asks and he lets out a loud laugh.

"Dallas, if you _ever_ touch Ally again, _ever_, I will come for you," Austin says slowly. "And I will _kick_. _Your._ _Ass._ Got it?" Dallas just laughs again. Austin holds up a fists and pretends as if he's about to punch Dallas. He flinches and runs out of the bathroom. Austin turns to me. "Are you okay?" he asks. "Did he hurt you?"

"No, I'm fine," I tell him. "But my underwear isn't." I lean down and pick them up. They were the orange pair with yellow hearts on them. "They were my favorite pair..." I frown as I toss them in the trash.

Austin rolls his eyes. "I can buy you a new pair," he says. "Now come on. Let's go home."

"Why? We just got here," I say.

"Well, I just figured you wouldn't wanna walk around with no underwear on..." he tells me.

"Uh, I'll be fine," I say. "As long as I don't have to bend over."

We walk out of the bathroom. "Can I be behind you if you do bend over?" Austin jokes. I turn around and punch him as hard as I can in the chest, unable to keep the smile off my face as I do.

"Shut up," I say. We both laugh. I stop as I notice something. I can hear the conversations of others. I mean, I could hear them before. But now I can hear them more clearly. And it's because the music has gone off. "What's going on?" I ask Austin.

"I don't know," he admits. "I'm gonna ask Tommy. If I can find him." A loud whistle sounds. Everyone shuts up and looks up. A guy is standing on top of the table. "There he is," I hear Austin says beside me.

"Okay, everybody, we're having a small problem with the stereo, but we'll get it fixed!" Tommy says into a microphone. "I'm going to try to find someone to play you some music. Anyone here in a band? Or something like that?" No one says a word. "Anyone know how to play an instrument at all? Or sing? Come on up." I feel Austin take my hand. He pulls me up toward Tommy.

"Hey, Tommy," Austin says.

"Oh, God, Austin, I'm so glad you're here," Tommy says to Austin. "I know you can play any instrument. Whatever's left, you can play. And you'll probably be the one singing too, if you don't mind." Austin shrugs, and I know he's glad to show off his skills. "If we can get a few more people to—" Three people walk up out of the crowd.

"Drums," one says simply.

"Bass guitar," another says.

"Piano," the last says.

"Austin, electric guitar good for you?" Tommy asks. Austin nods. "Awesome, I have the instruments in my room. The drums are already down here so you can go ahead and get yourself ready with them, Alex." Tommy points at something and I suppose he's pointing in the direction of the drums. The red-headed girl who said she could play the drums nods and walks toward them. "Austin, Steve, Zack, follow me and we'll get the other instruments."

Austin tries to pull me with him, but I just shake my head, telling him I'll wait down here. After they walk up the stairs, I go over to Alex and see her pulling drum sticks out of her pockets. When I said she had red hair, I meant she had _red_ hair. Not orange, but cherry red. But there are streaks of black in her hair and the bangs that cover her forehead are half-black.

"Do you carry those everywhere with you?" I ask her.

She jumps, not knowing I was standing beside her. She nods. "Yeah," she says. "Sometimes, I get a beat in my head, and I have to drum it out so I won't forget it for later."

"That makes sense," I tell her. "So are you in a band?"

"My friends and I are trying to start one," she says. "But we can't decide on a name."

"Oh, that's cool," I say. I start to say something else, but Austin, Tommy, Steve, and Zack come back downstairs. They plug in their instruments and Zack sets the keyboard stand down, placing the keyboard on top of it.

"What song should we play?" Austin, being the lead singer/electric guitarist, asks. Everyone shrugs.

"Play _Dirty Little Secret_!" some drunk guy in the audience shouts.

"I guess we're playing _Dirty Little Secret_," Austin says, pulling the guitar's strap over his head. "You guys know the song? I mean, I know you probably know the song, but can you play it?" Everyone nods. "Good. Let's get started." Austin waves me over to him and I walk to him. "Think you can write a song now?" he asks me.

"What?" I ask. "Now?"

"Yeah," Austin says.

"Uh... uh... I—I can try," I tell him. "But I can't promise anything."

"All right, fine," he says. "Go get started."

"Okay," I say, walking away as Tommy and another boy pushes the table he was standing on out of the way along with the chairs. I grab a napkin from the kitchen and a pen and sit down in one of the chairs Tommy just got finished moving. I set to work as Alex, Austin, Steve, and Zack start to play.

_Let me know that I've done wrong_

_When I've known this all along_

_I go around a time or two_

_Just to waste my time with you_

_Tell me all that you've thrown away_

_Find out games you don't wanna play_

_You are the only one that needs to know..._

_I'll keep you my dirty little secret_

_Don't tell anyone_

_Or you'll be just another regret_

_My dirty little secret_

_Who has to know...?_

Austin glances over at me and smiles when he sees that I'm writing. I'm about halfway done when the crowd begins to cheer and Austin looks over at me again and raises his eyebrows, silently asking _Are you done yet?_

_Almost_, I mouth to him.

"Any more requests?" Austin asks the crowd. People shout out random songs, but the one that catches my attention is, "_Demons_!" It seems to have caught Austin's too. "Uh, _Demons_?" Austin asks. "Who sings that?"

"Imagine Dragons!" the same person shouts.

Austin thinks for a second before saying, "Oh, I know that song!" I don't. Austin looks at the other members of his temporary band to make sure they know it. A moment later, Zack starts playing the piano. I look back down at my napkin and continue writing.

_When the days are cold_

_And the cards all fold_

_And the saints we see_

_Are all made of gold_

_When your dreams all fail_

_And the ones we hail_

_Are the worst of all_

_And the blood's run stale_

Austin's soft singing makes me snap my head up. I don't think I've ever hear his voice that soft. Even though he isn't looking at me, I feel like he's singing straight to my heart. I feel my eyes closing and I begin to sway a little. Steve brings the bass guitar in.

_I wanna hide the truth_

_I wanna shelter you_

_But with the beast inside_

_There's nowhere we can hide_

I open my eyes and see Austin staring straight at me. When our eyes lock, he smiles. I feel my cheeks heat up a bit and I look back down.

_No matter what we breed_

_We still are made of greed_

_This is my kingdom, come_

Alex starts using the kick drum.

_This is my kingdom, come_

_When you feel my heat_

_Look into my eyes_

_It's where my demons hide_

_It's where my demons hide_

The lyrics kind of make me want to cry. I force myself not to look at Austin and concentrate on the song. But I can't. I close my eyes again and sway.

_Don't get too close_

_It's dark inside_

_It's where my demons hide_

_It's where my demons hide_

The song suddenly slows down and it's just Zack playing again.

_Curtain's call_

_Is the last of all_

_When the lights fade out_

_All the sinners crawl_

_So they dug your grave_

_And the masquerade_

_Will come calling out_

_At the mess you've made_

I look up at Austin again and see that he's looking at me again. But this time, when our eyes lock, I'm unable to look away.

Don't wanna let you down

But I am hell bound

He's seriously making me want to cry right now. This song is a lot sadder than it seems if you listen closely.

_Though this is all for you_

_Don't wanna hide the truth_

_No matter what we breed_

_We still are made of greed_

_This is my kingdom, come_

_This is my kingdom, come_

_When you feel my heat_

_Look into my eyes_

_It's where my demons hide_

_It's where my demons hide_

_Don't get too close_

_It's dark inside_

I'm so into the song that I almost see something hiding behind his eyes and they darken.

_It's where my demons hide_

_It's where my demons hide_

_They say it's what you make_

_I say it's up to fate_

_It's woven in my soul_

_I need to let you go_

"Don't let me go," I whisper.

_Your eyes_

_They shine so bright_

I feel my fingers reach up to touch the skin around my eyes gingerly, wondering if my eyes really shine as bright as Austin makes them seem.

_I wanna save that light_

_I can't escape this now_

_Unless you show me how!_

I want to show you how! I want to walk over to you and show you how to escape, Austin!

_When you feel my heat_

_Look into my eyes_

_It's where my demons hide_

_It's where my demons hide_

_Don't get too close_

_It's dark inside_

_It's where my demons hide_

_It's where my demons hide..._

The song ends and I clap and cheer. That was amazing. Austin points down and it takes me a minute to realize that he's asking if I finished the song.

Damn it, Ally! You can't get wrapped up in the songs Austin sings. I don't care how beautifully he sings them... And I don't care if it seems like Austin's singing... straight to your heart...

You have to finish this song.

I shake my head at Austin.

"Okay, I think we need one more request," Austin says.

Someone screams, as loud as they can, "_If It Means A Lot To You_!" Someone really wanted that song sang.

"That's kind of a quiet song and I don't have anyone to sing it with," Austin says. "How about another song?"

"_If. It. Means. A. Lot. To. You_!" the person yells. "Sing it!"

"Okay, okay," Austin says. "Alex, you want to sing it with me?" Austin looks at Alex. She shakes her head quickly. Austin looks over and gives me a small smile. I shake my head. He runs over to me. "Please?" he asks me. "Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, _please_?"

"O-okay," I say.

"Come on," he says. He puts my napkin on the table and pulls me over to where he was standing before, in front of the microphone. Austin motions for Steve to start playing. Instead of playing the acoustic guitar for the song, they just use the bass guitar and the drums for some parts.

_(Austin=Italics; _**Ally=Bold; ****_Both=Both)_**

_And hey, darling_

_I hope you're good tonight_

_And I know you don't feel right_

_When I'm leavin'_

_Yeah, I want it but no, I don't need it_

_Tell me somethin' sweet to get me by_

_'Cause I can't come back home_

_Till they're singin'_

_La_

_La, la, la_

_La, la, la_

_Till everyone is singin'_

_If you can wait till I get home_

_Then I swear to you_

_That we can make this last_

_If you can wait till I get home_

_Then I swear come tomorrow_

_This will all be in our past_

_Well, it might be for the best_

**And hey, sweetie**

**Well, I need you here tonight**

**And I know that you don't wanna be leavin' me**

**Yeah, you want it, but I can't help it**

**I just feel complete when you're by my side**

**But I know you can't come home**

**Till they're singin'**

**La**

**La, la, la**

**La, la, la**

**_Till everyone is singin'_**

_La_

_La, la, la_

_La, la, la_

_If you can wait till I get home_

_Then I swear to you_

_That we can make this last_

_If you can wait till I get home_

_Then I swear come tomorrow_

_This will all be in our past_

_Well, it might be for the best_

**You know you can't give me what I need**

I shake my head at Austin as I sing.

**And even though you mean so much to me**

**I can't wait through everything**

_Is this really happening?_

Austin looks genuinely sad, as if I'm actually breaking up with him. Even if I could, I wouldn't.

Wait, what?

I mean, I could if I would.

Yeah, that's what I meant.

_I swear I'll never be happy again_

_And don't you dare say we can just be friends_

_I'm not some boy that you can sway_

**We knew it'd happen eventually**

The crowd begins to sing with Austin and I, those who know the song.

**_La_**

**_La, la, la_**

**_La, la, la_**

**_Now everybody's singin'_**

**_La_**

**_La, la, la_**

**_La, la, la_**

**_Now everybody's singin'_**

**_La_**

**_La, la, la_**

**_La, la, la_**

**If you can wait till I get home**

_Now everybody's singin'_

**La**

**La, la, la**

_Then I swear we can make this last_

**La, la, la**

**Now everybody's singin'**

**La**

**La, la, la**

_If you can wait till I get home_

**La, la, la**

**Now everybody's singin'**

**La**

_Then I swear we can make this last_

_La, la, la_

_La, la, la_

**_Now everybody's singin'_**

**_La..._**

Everyone claps and cheers and Austin and I have to rip our eyes away from each other. "Did you finish the song?" Austin asks me, looking at his feet.

"I just need to finish the ending and—"

I'm cut off by loud music. Tommy runs up to us. "Good news! The stereo's working again!" he exclaims. "You guys can start partying again! Whoo!" Tommy pulls his shirt off and runs into the crowd.

"All right then," Austin says. "I guess I can just sing it for the talent show then. So... what did you think of my singing? And my playing?"

"It was awesome," I tell him, remembering how he played _Demons_. "I—I really liked _Demons_. You just... You sang it so perfectly and... amazingly... and... beautifully." I realize that my head has drooped a little and I'm staring up at him, as if in a daze.

"Uh... yeah," he says. "I'll... be right back. I have to go put Tommy's guitar back."

"Mmkay," I murmur. Austin hurries up the stairs. I walk back over to where I put the napkin. I fold it up and put it in my pocket.

"Ally, come here," someone says in my ear, taking my forearm in their hand.

"Okay," I say immediately, recognizing Austin's voice. He leads me back to the bathroom. He closes the door behind him. I feel my cheeks burn red.

I look up into his eyes and get lost. _When you feel my heat, look into my eyes. It's where my demons hide, it's where my demons hide._ I hear Austin say something and it's as softly as he sang the song. It's music to my ears.

"Ally!" Austin exclaims, snapping his fingers in my face. "Did you hear me?"

"Nope," I tell him truthfully.

"I asked if you drank any of the punch," he tells me.

"Um... nope," I say.

"Did you eat any of the cookies?" he asks.

"Nope."

"Did you put _anything_ in your mouth while you were here?" Austin asks me. "Did you smell anything funny? Did you take a pill?"

"No, no, and _definitely no_," I say in a bit of a sing-song voice. "Well, unless you count Dallas's tongue." I let out a sound of disgust. He picks me up suddenly. "Whoa," I say. Then he sets me down on the sink.

He pushes my right eyelid up with his thumb, looking around my eyeball. Then he pushes my left eyelid up and does the same thing. He opens my mouth. "Blow," he instructs. I blow. He has a confused look on his face. "I think we need to get you home," he says. "You're acting... funny."

"_I_ think _you're_ the one acting funny," I tell him. I put my hands on his chest and push them up until they're on the back of his neck. "Can I tell you something?"

Austin stands up straighter and clears his throat. "Um, sure." His eyes slide closed as he waits for my reply.

"I..." I tangle my fingers in his hair and wrap my legs around his body. "I think I like you." I pull his head down toward mine and I kiss him. It's less than a moment before he kisses me back, wrapping his arms around my waist. I open my mouth, not even waiting for him to lick my lips.

Oh, yeah. His tongue is _definitely_ sweeter than Dallas's.

I keep my eyes shut as Austin pulls away and starts kissing my neck. This reminds me of earlier when Dallas said something about Austin kissing me like this. I said he doesn't and that I wouldn't like it. Well, he does and I love it.

Wait... What am I...?

"Didn't you say something about getting me home?" I ask Austin.

He stops kissing my neck abruptly and looks at me. "Yeah, let's go," he says. "Before..." He just trails off. Austin opens the bathroom door and walks out. I slowly leave the bathroom and start for my mom's car, touching my bottom lip, the one he had bit gently before kissing my neck.

**I may or may not have _ONE MORE_ up tonight. Depends on if I finish it or not. Or would you rather I leave it for tomorrow? Or later today, if you have the same time I do. It's, like, 12:18 where I am... Anyway, another chapter or wait until later? It's up to you guys! Majority rules!**

**LoVe, KeNzIe**

**P.S. The first song was _Dirty Little Secret_ by The All-American Rejects, the second song was _Demons_ by Imagine Dragons, and the last song was _If It Means A Lot To You_ by A Day To Remember.**


	8. Chapter 8

We reach my house and I figure Austin can walk back to his house if he wants. Unless he wants to come inside... We get out of the car and Austin walks around to my side.

"Um... I had fun," I tell him.

"Me, too," he says awkwardly.

"Do you wanna...?" I trail off, pointing at my house.

"It's kind of late..." He glances at his house, a few houses over. He acts like we've been at the party all night long when, really, it felt like we were there for maybe thirty minutes. Possibly forty five. It is dark though. "But sure."

I find my house key on my key chain and try to insert it into the lock. But I forgot to turn the porch lights on before I left so I can't really see. I drop the keys into the shadows. "Damn it," I whisper. I feel around my skirt for a pocket that I kept my phone in. No pockets. No phone. I probably left it in the car. "Austin, let me see your phone for a second," I say. He gives it to me.

I click the lock button to turn on the screen light. I shine it on the floor in front of me. There they are. I crouch down to get the keys, hoping Austin can't see in the dark because I feel my skirt riding up. I grab the keys quickly and stand up. I shine his light on the door knob and put the key into the lock, turning it.

I give Austin his phone back as we walk inside. "What time is it?" I ask Austin.

"About nine," he tells me.

"Really?" I ask, lowering my voice so as not to wake anyone up if they're asleep.

"Yep," he says. I lead him up to my room. I open the door and, in the darkness, I fumble around for the light switch. When it turns on, I feel like a vampire. I back up into Austin and shield my eyes.

"Geez," I say. "That's bright." I blink a lot as I take my hand away, trying to make my eyes adjust to the light.

"Not really," he says, "compared to... the sun." I glance up at him as we walk into my room. And I wonder if he was about to compare it to my eyes. _Your eyes, they shine so bright. I wanna save that light._

"Yeah." I drop my keys onto my bedside table. "You can make yourself comfortable if you'd like. I'm gonna change into my pajamas."

"Okay," Austin says, plopping down onto my bed.

I grab some PJ's out of my drawer along with a pair of underwear. I walk to the bathroom and slide my underwear on. Then I take off my shirt and my skirt and put on my pajamas. I brush my teeth quickly and run a comb through my hair. I leave the bathroom and throw my shirt, skirt, and shoes into my closet. I'll put them in my dirty clothes basket later.

I climb onto my bed and sit down next to Austin. "Ally," he says.

"Yeah?" I ask, turning to him.

"Did you mean what you said earlier in the bathroom?" Austin asks me.

"Which time?" I ask.

"The second time," he tells me. "Before you kissed me."

I look down and play with my fingers. "I dunno," I mumble. "Maybe." I shrug. "I'm not really sure."

"Well... why'd you say it?" he asks me.

I glance at him out of the corner of my eye. "What do you mean?"

"Like, what made you think that you liked me?" he asks.

"Uh... _Demons_," I tell him.

"_Demons_?" Austin asks.

"Yeah," I say. "When you sang the song, I just... I don't know. I saw you from a different point of view. I felt like you were singing straight to my heart." I feel kind of weird telling him this but, at the same time, it also feels completely normal. Like talking to an old friend.

"Well, it's probably just the song," he says. "Have you ever heard a song on the radio and loved it? And thought you loved the singer too? But then you looked up the song and found out you hated them? Maybe that's what's going on here."

"But I knew you were the singer," I tell him.

"True... All I can think of is that love makes you do crazy things," he says.

"What?" I ask. "No one said I loved you." I look down awkwardly.

"No, I meant your love for music," he tells me. "You probably just love the song and it made you think you liked me too." Austin sounds like he doesn't have a clue what he's talking about. But he may be on to something.

"That's probably it," I say, not wanting to admit that I like him. I've hated him for years. One little song can't change that...

... Can it?

No. Of course not!

"My brain says I don't like you," I whisper, "but my heart says I do..."

"You know what they say: Listen to your brain," he says.

"What? I thought they said—"

"Nope, it's brain," he says quickly. "Listen to your brain. Because your brain knows best. Your heart can't think for itself. Therefore, you should listen to your brain." He stands up. "I'm gonna go."

"Wait," I say, grabbing his arm.

"What?"

"I'm sorry," I say.

"For what?"

"For... well, scaring you," I tell him.

"Scaring me?" he asks. "How did you scare me?"

"I thought... I thought me saying I liked you scared you," I admit. "But not in that scary way. In the other scary way."

"Oh," he says. "No, you didn't scare me. It's just... it was a change. I—I don't think I'm ready for change." He shrugs. "Not yet anyway."

"I get it," I tell him. Remember earlier when I thought it was about to rain? Well, it starts now. I hear light taps on my window.

"You'd better get home," I say, "before it starts—" _pouring_. And there it goes. Rain beats on my window as if someone's hurling boulders at it.

Austin walks over to my balcony door and looks out. "I can still make it," he says. He walks over to my door and puts his hand on the knob.

"It did scare you," I say quietly.

"What?" Austin asks, turning back to me and leaning a little closer in order to hear me.

"It did scare you," I repeat, "what I said earlier. You're trying so hard to get away from me." I cross my arms over my chest. "You're risking getting pneumonia just because you don't want me to like you. You think that if you spend one more night at my house, in my bed, that I'll fall in love with you and want this wedding more than anything, don't you?" I laugh quietly. "You think I'm gonna turn into Dallas." I look up at him. "Don't you?"

"No!" Austin exclaims immediately, walking quickly back over to my bed and sitting on the edge. "It's not that at all. It's... I... I'm afraid of falling in love with _you_."

My eyes widen and I'm unable to speak.

"Now you're the one that's scared, right?" he says.

I try to say something, but I don't hear anything come out.

"Maybe I shouldn't have said that," he tells me. My mouth just hangs open, my tongue and lips trying to articulate words, my vocal cords not allowing it. "Like I said, I'm gonna go." He starts to walk out again.

_BOOM!_

Thunder.

No.

No, no, no. It's not fair. It's not fair to Austin. God knows I won't let Austin leave me alone during a thunderstorm. And God knows Austin won't leave anyway. What are you playing at?

Austin's hand slides off the doorknob, hanging my his side. "Do you _want_ me to stay?" he asks, not looking at me, but at my balcony door.

"Yes," I say, finding my voice at last.

"Okay," he says and he turns around, walking back over to my bed.

"You don't have to..." I trail off. The word I want to use sounds odd so I'm not going to say it. Austin gives me a blank look. But I guess I'm going to have to. "You don't have to, you know, like, uh, cuddle with me." That word just sounds weird. And saying it to Austin? Even more weird.

"Oh, okay... but—"

"If you're really afraid of falling in love with me, then there's no need to provoke your heart," I tell him.

"There's really no reason for me to stay then," he says. "Because you'll continue to be scared."

I sigh. "Then... Then leave," I say. "I'll just see you tomorrow."

_BOOM!_

Thunder and lightning both at the same time. I jump up and run to my closet. I grab Dougie the Dolphin off the top shelf and run back to my bed, hiding under the covers and holding Dougie close. I shake and shiver, afraid of the thunder and lightning.

Dougie doesn't work as well as he used to. But he's all I got right now. I feel Austin sit down on my bed. "Ally, come here." I scramble out from under my blanket and curl up in his arms, leaving Dougie behind. I jump as thunder claps again. Austin holds me closer. "Now there is one rule."

"What is it?" I ask.

"Don't even _think_ about doing anything adorable," he says in a scolding tone. I just giggle. "Ally," he whines, "what did I _just_ say?"

"You think my giggling is adorable?" I ask, stifling the urge to giggle once more. "Sorry."

"It's o—"

I cut him off by screaming as something outside snaps. Whether it was a tree or just a tree branch, I'm not sure.

"It's okay," Austin reassures me. "It was just a tree branch."

"What if a tree falls on my room?" I ask.

"It won't," he tells me.

"But—"

"It _won't_, Ally," he says.

Thunder claps again and it rains harder. "Austin, make it stop," I whisper into his chest.

I'm not sure if he heard me.

He did. "I would if I could," he tells me. "I really would."

"Tell me about something," I say.

"What?"

"Tell me about something," I repeat, "to distract me. Tell me about... tell me about your dreams, the dreams you have. You promised to tell me."

"Not yet," he says. "I'm not ready."

I sigh. "Okay. Then tell me about something else."

"Okay, um..." He inhales through his nose, thinking. He exhales, frustrated. "I can't think straight when I smell strawberries," he groans. "Do you know where it's coming from? It's really bothering me."

My mouth falls open a bit and I'm glad my head is facing down so that Austin can't see my open mouth. It's just dawned on me why Austin's smelling strawberries.

My perfume. The perfume I sprayed on myself earlier. I always use strawberry perfume. And I also always use strawberry-smelling conditioner for my hair. I've always used that conditioner but I remember that first day I started wearing strawberry perfume. I wonder if my strawberry smell has the same effect on Austin that his cinnamon smell has on me.

_"Ally?" I heard my mom say as she knocked softly on my door._

_"Come in," I said._

_She opened the door and came over to sit on the edge of my bed. I put my diary beside me on the bed. "I have some old friends coming over today and I want you to try this perfume," she said. "I'd put makeup on you"—My eyes lit up. I'd always wanted to try on my mom's makeup.—"but I think you're a little too young," she told me._

_I frowned. "Maybe in a year or two... Anyway, they're coming home from their vacation and I want you to meet them. And I know you've always wanted to use perfume." I nodded excitedly. "And since this is a special occasion, I'm going to let you use this perfume. Here, smell."_

_She sprayed it into the air in front of me and, like I'd always seen my mom do in stores, I used my hand to waft it toward my nose. I took a deep breath through my nose and smelled strawberries._

_"Mmm," I said, smiling. "I love it."_

_"Good," she said, holding the bottle out to me, "because it's yours."_

_"Really?" I asked excitedly, sitting up straight. "You're gonna let me _have_ it?"_

_"Of course," she said. "So go spray a few sprays on yourself. The Moons will be here in about an hour."_

_"I've heard you talk about the Moons," I said. "I always thought it was cool how their first names both started with M's. Aren't they in love? Is that how most love stories are?"_

_My mother's eyes shined brightly as she thought of something. "Some are. It does make it considerably cuter sometimes when their names start with the same letter," she told me._

_I looked up dreamily, clutching the bottle of strawberry perfume in my hands. "I hope, someday, I marry a boy with a name that starts with an A," I said to her. She just smiled brightly._

I look up at Austin. "We have some strawberries downstairs," I tell him, deciding to omit the part about my strawberry perfume. And the part about me unconsciously telling my mother I wanted to marry Austin. Now I knew why her eyes shined and she smiled brightly.

"Awesome," he says. We stand up. Austin keeps his arm around my shoulders as we walk downstairs to the kitchen. He only lets me go when I open the fridge.

"We're almost out of strawberries," I say to him, showing him the carton of strawberries.

"Um, do you have any strawberry ice cream? Pop tarts?" Austin asks me.

I look in the fridge once more for anything strawberry, then in the freezer, then in the pantry. "Ah, we've got pop tarts," I say, pulling down the strawberry pop tarts and setting the box in front of Austin, who's now sitting at the island.

I sit down beside him as he pulls out one of the silvery foil packages. He opens it and takes a bite of his pop tart, smiling a little to himself. "I really like strawberries," he tells me, absentmindedly. "I've liked them a lot since I was little. In fact, I started liking them around the time I met you." He tries to make sense of it. "Was the juice box strawberry-flavored?" he asks me.

I shrug. "I dunno," I lie. "Maybe." I hear thunder and I jump. Austin pulls me from my seat into his lap.

"It's okay," he whispers, looking down at me. He takes a bite of his pop tart then sets it down. His breath smells like cinnamon mixed with strawberries. But it still smells enough like cinnamon to get me drunk on it. He blinks, scanning my face once, twice, three times, each time lingering on my lips for a few extra seconds.

"Austin," I whisper back, trying to stop him from doing something he'll regret later. He hushes me. I shake my head as he starts to lean down. "No," I say weakly. "No, no, no." Nonetheless, I close my eyes in anticipation of his lips on mine. He says my name softly once right before the gap between us ceases to exist.

Before the kiss gets too serious, I shove Austin away from me and get out of his lap. "Austin," I say, "_stop_."

"But—"

"No," I say. He gets down from his seat.

"Ally," he says, walking towards me and making me back up. I hit the wall and Austin traps me against it. "I can't..." He caresses my face. "I can't help myself..." he whispers, leaning down again.

I push him away. "Yes. You can." He shakes his head. "Leave," I tell him. He tries to say something but I just repeat the word: "_Leave_." I hear thunder outside, telling me to let him stay but I try my best to ignore it. For Austin's sake.

"Ally," he whispers, leaning his head against mine. He takes a deep breath.

"Is it real?" I ask.

Austin stares into my eyes, his black pupils seeming to stand out against his brown irises. "What?"

"Is this real?" I repeat. "Are you really falling in love with me right now? Or is it just my strawberry smell, clouding up your common sense?"

He blinks. "_Your_ strawberry smell?" he asks.

"Austin, listen to me," I say firmly. "Is... it... _real_?" He opens his mouth to say something, but I cut him off, giving him one more chance to find out before he says, "Yes." "I'm going to let you kiss me one more time," I tell him. His eyes seem to light up. "You kiss me once. If you feel something, then it's real. If it's just a kiss to you, then... it's just a kiss."

"What happens if it isn't real?" he asks me. "What then?"

"Then we tell our parents the truth and go our separate ways," I tell him. "Metaphorically since I'll probably still have to give you a ride home from school."

The rain outside seems to fall harder, if that's even possible. Austin kisses me, his hands now on my waist. I put my hands on his arms, not wanting to put them on his neck as usual and get too into the kiss. The kiss is short, sweet, and to the point. When he pulls away, it's almost too soon.

"Is it real?" I whisper, barely audible. Austin heard it though, as his head is still inches from mine. He looks as if he's struggling with himself internally as he says the next word.

"No."

And I hit the ground.

**Don't worry about Ally. I can tell you now that she's perfectly fine. :) Kinda. ANYHOODLES, I'll try to update tomorrow. I'm not going to school (I'm skipping because I'm just that badass. Lol, jk. I'm a goodie-two-shoes depending on the time of day.) so I'll try to get a lot of writing in tomorrow.**

**Good night. Don't let the bedbugs bite. And if they do, get a shoe, and beat 'em till they're black and blue. :) Sweet dreams!**

**Unless it's morning or sometime during the day. In that case, have a nice day!**

**LoVe, KeNzIe**


	9. Chapter 9

And I hit the ground.

Hard.

Metaphorically, of course... If you, um, catch my drift.

"Oh," I say. "Okay."

"I'm gonna go," he says. "Really this time. I have an Irish Jig to learn by Monday."

With that, he releases me and leaves my house, taking his pop tarts with him. Before he gets to the front door, he turns around and comes back to the kitchen. My heart picks itself up and I look at him, waiting for him to say something. But he just grabs the box of pop tarts from off the counter along with the pack he already opened.

"Can I have these?" he asks, holding up the pop tart box.

"Sure," I say, still standing against the wall.

"Awesome, thanks," he says.

And he leaves. Really this time, like he said. I hear him close the door gently behind him. I run to my room, thunder so loud it seems to chase me down the hallway and up the stairs. I grab Dougie the Dolphin and climb under my covers, putting my pillow over my head to block out the lightning, rain, and thunder.

* * *

I didn't see Austin at all on Sunday. He doesn't come over or anything. He doesn't call. He doesn't text. He doesn't exist.

Well, I mean, I'm sure he exists, but he just doesn't exist in my life. Not anymore. _If it's just a kiss to you, then... it's just a kiss. Then we tell our parents the truth and go our separate ways._ Austin went his separate way, all right.

Sunday night, I take a shower and throw my clothes in the closet. I'm being so messy. I need to stop that before it gets to be a habit. I walk back into my closet and grab my clothes from today off of the floor. I toss them into the hamper. I pick up the ones from yesterday and something falls to the ground. I pick up a napkin, throwing my clothes into the hamper.

I open it up and see that it's Austin's song. Oh, well, I'll just give it to him tomorrow, I guess, when I give him a ride home. I go over to sit on my bed. I finish the ending quickly. I pick up my songbook and use the napkin as a bookmark. I'll put it in my pocket tomorrow so I can remember to give it to Austin. I pull my blanket up to my chin and fall asleep.

* * *

I sit in the cafeteria with Trish at the table we've practically made our own. No one sits here. No one will ever sit here until after we graduate. This is our table. I mean, people can sit here if they ask first, but otherwise, no.

Suddenly, I hear someone scream and my head snaps up. I look up and see Dez standing on a table at the front of the cafeteria.

"Sorry, that was the only way to get your attention," he calls across the room. "My friend, Austin Moon, has agreed to dance the Irish Jig for you!" Everyone laughs and starts to talk to their friends again. "No, I'm serious," Dez says. Austin steps up onto the table. I look down at the food on my tray. I rest my head in my hands and my elbows on the table. I don't even watch as he does his little dance. I just push my peas around my tray with my fork.

"Hey, it's Austin's wife-to-be!" someone shouts. A girl from the next table grabs my arm and pushes my up onto the table. She's probably one of Cassidy's friends since she's wearing a cheerleader's outfit. From up here, I see that Austin is only two tables away from me, a lot closer than I thought he was.

"Hey, Ally!" someone calls from the other side of the cafeteria. "Tell us the truth! Rumors have been going around about your engagement! Are you _really_ in love with Austin?! Or are you getting married for some other reason?"

"Yeah, Ally, are you in love with Austin?!" someone else asks.

_Yes_, I think. _Yes. I'm totally and completely in love with Austin Monica Moon_.

When I said I hit the ground metaphorically, I meant that I hit the ground in the love hole. Sounds corny, I know, but that's the only way I can describe what happened.

But Austin doesn't feel the same way. I look over at Austin, who's staring at me intently. I realize that Austin told me how he felt but I never told him how I felt. He's probably wondering.

"No!" I shout. "I _hate_ Austin Moon! I always have and I always will! Our parents are forcing us to get married because we've known each other since we were kids and they think we're one of those little love stories where the best friends grow up and fall in love! But we're not! We're just... Well, I don't know what we are! But we are _not_ lovers!" Everyone just stares at me. I jump off of the table and walk over to Austin's. I take the napkin out of my pocket and hand it to him. "I finished it," I mutter to him before going to sit back down at Trish and I's table.

"Ally, don't you think that was a little harsh?" Trish asks me.

"Nope," I tell her, taking a sip of my milk. Everyone watches as Austin gets off of his table and races out of the lunchroom. I swallow. "Maybe," I say.

"Are you gonna go talk to him?" she asks me.

"He's already made his decision," I tell her, staring at the door he left through.

"What decision?"

I don't answer her. After I finish lunch, Trish and I walk to class. As I pass the band room, I see Austin in there, playing various instruments with a napkin in front of him. He looks like he's practicing hard for the talent show tomorrow even though I doubt he really needs the practice.

After school today, I wait on the sidewalk by the parking lot for Austin. "What are you doing?" someone asks me. I turn and see Trish. "School let out almost fifteen minutes ago. I figured you'd be gone by now."

"I'm waiting for Austin," I tell her.

She points past me. I look over and see the school football practice field. If I squint and look really hard and really fast, I can see the number 18 on one of the jerseys and a flash of blond hair under the helmet of the wearer.

"It's Monday, Ally," she says. "Doesn't his mom come to pick him up on Monday after practice?"

"Probably," I say. "Who's your ride?"

Right after I ask, Dez walks up. "Dez," Trish says. "We're going to his house so that he can bake things for me."

"Why?" I ask.

"Because I have something that he wants," she leans in and whispers to me. "He just doesn't know what it is yet." She points to her heart and it takes me a moment to realize that she's talking about Dez's "heart of Davy Jones."

"Got it," I tell her.

"There's my mom!" Dez exclaims and he grabs Trish's hand, dragging her to his mom's car. I could've sworn I saw the faintest hint of a blush on Trish's face as she turned to run with Dez. And maybe, Trish has finally realized that Dez _does_ look like Dan...

And maybe I could find out soon that Austin and I are like Aiden and Ashley as well. And maybe, just maybe, we wouldn't break up soon after.

I take out my phone and call Mimi. "Hello?"

"Hey, it's Ally," I say.

"Oh, Ally, hello, what's up?" she asks. I never thought I'd hear those words come out of her mouth.

I shake my head to clear the thought. "Um, don't worry about picking Austin up from practice today. I'm gonna wait for him and give him a ride," I tell her.

"That's sweet," she says. "Thank you. While you're on the phone, I need to ask you: Have you thought about a date for your wedding?"

For the first time, I don't cringe at the word. "No," I tell her. "Austin and I will talk about that after practice is done if you want."

"That'd be great," she tells me. "Thank you. I'll see you when you get here. Bye, Ally."

"Bye," I say, and I hang up.

I walk over to the practice field and sit down in the shadows, watching Austin practice. He's really good. I don't know what position he plays and, honestly, I don't care. It's just amusing to watch him do something he's good at. I wonder if it'll be the same tomorrow, when I watch him sing at the talent show.

After practice is done, I follow them to the locker rooms and wait outside while they shower and change into regular clothes. After about ten or fifteen minutes, I watch as the players begin to walk out. Feeling like I should say something, so I won't feel weird for just standing out here, I raise my hand. The first person out high-fives me and I say, "Good job." Another comes out. "Good job." High-five. "Good job." High-five. "Good job." High-five. Hey, there's Wilson. "Hey, Wilson!" I say to him, as he high-fives me. "Good job out there today!"

"Thanks," he says. "You were watching?"

"Good job," I say to another player as he comes out and high-fives me. "Yeah, I'm giving Austin a ride home today when he comes out. Good job. Good job."

"Didn't you say you hated him in the cafeteria today?" Wilson asks me.

"Good job. Yeah, but... Good job. Good job. Just 'cause I said it don't mean that I meant it," I tell him. I stifle a small laugh as I realize that I just quoted Adele on accident. "Good job. Good—" Austin comes out and just stares at my raised hand as if it's a foreign object that he has no idea what to do with. "—job," I finish lamely.

"Thanks," he says and looks at Wilson with something like fire in his eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"Your mom was busy," I lie. "So I'm giving you a ride home."

Austin struggles to keep a smile off of his face. "You're lying," he says, trying to sound indifferent.

"Maybe I am, but your mom isn't coming so you can either come with me or stay here," I say, crossing my arms over my chest.

"I guess I don't really have a choice then," he says.

"I'm gonna leave you two to it," Wilson says, walking off.

"Bye, Wilson!" I say.

"Bye, Ally-Cat!" he calls back.

"Let's go," I say to Austin. We walk over to my mom's car and get in. I turn the car on. "Um—"

"Let me say something first," he cuts me off. I look at him. "I'm sorry," he says. I raise an eyebrow. "For making you hate me."

I shake my head. "I don't hate you."

"But you said—"

"I know what I said," I tell him. "I know what I said." I pull out of the parking lot. "Mimi wants to know when you're ready to get married."

If Austin had been drinking something, he probably would have choked on it. "_What?_" he asks. "I... I thought we were going to tell them the... the truth."

"We can do that when we get home then," I tell him.

"Okay."

I sigh. I'll have to tell him some time or another.

"What's wrong?" Austin asks me.

"Austin, I don't hate you," I repeat. "I—Oh, shit!" I swerve around the small animal in the middle of the road. I smash into a tree. The airbags smack us in the face.

"Ally!" Austin exclaims worriedly. "Are you okay?"

I feel my head and everything else, looking for any injuries. "Yeah, I'm fine. Are you okay?" I push the airbag down.

"I'm good," he says. "Call your mom."

"But I need to tell you... I l... I lo... You're right, I lied. I called your mom and told her I'd give you a ride," I say, avoiding the actual point.

"It's fine," he says. "Just call your mom."

Austin opens his door and gets out. "I love you," I whisper. I get out as well and take out my phone, dialing my mom's number. I slam the door behind me, frustrated with myself and my inability to tell Austin how I really

**Sorry it's so short and sucky! I'm about to leave for my other house again and leave my WiFi behind so I had to wrap it up and upload this chapter. I'll try to have a better and longer chapter later in the week. So review :D**

**LoVe, KeNzIe**


	10. Chapter 10

"Hey, Mom," I say after she answers. It's then that I realize what just happened. I've just crashed my mother's car. I try not to become hysterical, but I fail. I start sobbing.

"Ally?" my mom asks. "Are you all right? What's going on?"

"I—I—I crashed your car, Mom!" I exclaim. "I didn't mean to! There—there was this—"

"Ally, calm down," she says. "Breathe in. Breathe out."

I breathe in deeply and out deeply. "Thanks, Mom."

"Now, where are you at?" I look around then tell her our location. "I'll be there in a minute." She hangs up and I look at Austin.

"Sorry for almost killing you," I tell him quietly. He walks closer.

"What?"

"I said, 'Sorry for almost killing you.'"

He just chuckles. "It's okay," he says. "Even though I'm getting the feeling you did that on purpose."

"What?!" I ask. "I didn't do this on purpose!"

"Well, you know, you _did_ tell my mom not to come pick me up and then you forced me to come with you," he tells me. "_Then_ you crashed the damned car!" He starts laughing and I realize that he's joking, trying to lighten the mood. "Now stop crying. Please. I don't like it when... people cry. It's too sad."

I wipe my face. "Sorry."

"Don't apologize. You can't help it," he says. He studies my face.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I ask him.

He blinks. "Like what?"

My mom pulls up to the side of the road in Mimi's car with Mimi in the passenger seat. Mom climbs out quickly and runs over to Austin and I. "My babies!" Mimi shouts, climbing out of the car and running over to us. "Are you two okay?" she asks. "Oh, my God!" She hugs us close to her and kisses us all over.

"Mimi, they're fine," Mom says.

"Yeah, we really are," I tell her as she lets us go. "There was an animal down the road and—"

"Is the animal okay?!" my mom asks worriedly, starting to run in the direction Austin and I came from.

"Mom! The animal's fine! I swerved around it and that's the reason your car is in the tree!" I call to her. She turns and comes back.

"Oh," she says, "okay."

"Well, it isn't... _that_ bad..." Mimi says, looking at it. I look at it too, for the first time. The whole front of the car now looks like a U with the tree there. "We can just call a tow truck and get it fixed for... about... seven, eight hundred dollars?" She looks at all of us. "Keep in mind that I'm not the _best_ estimating person."

"Let's just start with the tow truck then," Mom says.

So they call the tow truck and they haul the car off to the shop. They said they'd probably have it fixed either tomorrow or sometime later in the week. Austin and I climb into the backseat, him in the middle seat and me on the right side of the car, behind Mimi. My mom turns the car on and we continue our ride home.

Austin takes his hand and places it on my knee. I stare at him as if he's insane. Mostly because I thought he didn't like me like that. He jerks his head in the direction of our moms. I still don't understand.

I take it my phone and send him a text that says, _I thought we were going to tell them the truth?_

After receiving and reading my text, he replies with his free hand, saying, _Let's not give them one piece of bad news after the other. First the crashed car and then us not really being in love? I don't think so. I say we tell them after the car gets fixed..._

Period of ellipses. Now that could either mean awkwardness or...

My phone vibrates. _Deal?_ Austin has asked. I look at him and nod. He turns his hand over, palm up, and opens his fingers. I reluctantly place my hand in his and it closes around mine, my fingers in the spaces between his. I sigh, but Austin doesn't seem to notice. He just stares out of the left window.

It's then that I notice that, even though Austin showered, his hands are still pretty sweaty. I don't take my hand out of his though. I just let everything be.

* * *

I sit at the head of my bed staring at Austin, who sits at the foot.

"You know," he says, "you could—"

"Don't," I say. Every time he's started a sentence with those words, it ended badly.

"I'm just trying to lighten the mood, Ally," he tells me.

"Well, don't," I say again.

"Why did you say you hated me earlier if you don't?" he asks.

"Long story," I answer.

"Is it because of Wilson?"

"Wilson?" I ask. "Why would it be because of Wilson?" I raise an eyebrow.

"I just figured..."

"I'm not Cassidy," I tell him.

"I know, it's just—" he starts, but I cut him off.

"You're broken," I say quietly.

He sighs and looks down, shrugging. "A little," he replies. Austin looks up. "How'd you know?" It's my turn to shrug. "But I don't understand it myself," he says. "I didn't even really like Cassidy that much. It's just that she's hot." I roll my eyes and sit back against the wall, folding my arms across my chest. He hurries on. "Like, the whole team was urging me to ask her out, you know? So I just did. I don't know why it hurt me so much when I figured it out."

I look at him. He looks so helpless and confused and... small. "I thought it was because you didn't think she capable of betraying you like that," I say. "Or something..."

He shrugs. "Maybe. Well, I'm gonna head home and practice," he says.

"Why do you need to practice?" I ask. "I'm sure you can play and sing it perfectly."

"Not yet," he says, shaking his head. And he leaves my room.

* * *

The next day, when I walk into school, everyone's buzzing about the talent show this afternoon. I think about the song I wrote for Austin, the incredibly simple song, and I wonder how he could possibly think he didn't have it perfect yet. The intercom comes on as I walk to my locker. They're asking for the people who signed up for the talent show to come to the auditorium so that they can get set up and practice again.

They get to skip class for a whole day just so that they can do that. I don't really see why it's such a big deal. I mean, is it really so important that you should be able to skip class? I don't think so.

I reach my locker and take my books out. As I'm about to close it, someone reaches up and pushes it shut for me.

"Uh, thanks?" I say questioningly, spinning around. Austin.

"I came by to say thanks for writing me the song," Austin says.

"It's no big deal," I tell him.

"It's a huge deal," he says. "If I win, I'm giving you half the prize money. Okay?"

"Oh, that really isn't necessary," I say, waving it off.

"Ally, it's totally necessary," he tells me.

I just shrug. Whether he likes it or not, I'm not taking the money. "Fine. Well, good luck today," I say, reaching out to shake his hand. At the same time, he opens his arms for a hug. I awkwardly change positions, opening my own arms, as he holds his hand out to me. He opens his arms again quickly and hugs me. I just kind of stare at him after he pulls away.

"Okay," he says and he walks away. I turn around to walk to class and see Dallas standing there.

"What do you want, Dallas?" I ask.

"You wrote Austin's song?"

I shrug. "Yeah, why?"

"What if I wrote you a song?"

"There's no guarantee I'd listen to it," I tell him.

"But it would've come from the heart. Would you love me again?"

"Dallas—"

"Answer the question," he says, pushing me gently back against the locker. Even though he pushed me gently, I whimper, remembering the last time he did something like this. "Would you love me again if I wrote a song for you?"

I'm about to answer when someone yanks Dallas away from me and shoves him up against the lockers forcefully. "Dallas, can you repeat to me what Trish and I said to you the last time we spoke?" Austin asks. I could've sworn he left. "The last time we spoke while you were sober?"

"'If you don't stay away from Ally, we'll kick your ass,'" Dallas answers, trembling. "A-Actually, I think that's what you said while I was drunk too."

"Exactly, you'd think the point had gotten across by then," he says. Austin raises his fist and Dallas squeezes his eyes shut.

"Stop!" I scream. No one else in the hallway heard over their own loud talking. "Stop. Don't... Austin, please don't."

"Be happy your little girlfriend stuck up for you," Austin says. When he looks at me, he immediately lets Dallas go. "I'm sorry," he says quickly, probably apologizing about the "little girlfriend" thing.

"You can't fight me anyway," Dallas says, catching Austin's attention. "You'll get kicked off the team."

"I've been wanting to kick your ass for a long time," Austin says with a side-glance at me, "so that's a chance I'm willing to take."

"You can't fight me if you can't catch me!" Dallas shouts and he takes off down the hallway.

Austin glances at me before saying, "Later." And he leaves as well. Then I walk to class.

* * *

About halfway through the school day, everyone is called into the auditorium for the talent show. A senior, Ashley Madison (the girl who is in charge of the show), walks out on stage and welcomes us. She tells us we have a lot of great people performing their talents today.

"Benny Thompson, and his partner/little brother, Lane Thompson, are up first!" she says.

Benny and Lane walk out on stage wearing karate outfits. They spar for a little while then they each chop three boards in half. We applaud. After the Thompson brothers, there's a knife juggler (she had to use plastic knives because of school rules against weapons), a balloon-animal maker, and a lion tamer (he brought in his cat instead of a lion). Huh, where's the ring master?

"Next up is Dez... Dez, you didn't put your last name on here!" Ashley calls to backstage.

"I don't have one!" Dez calls back.

Ashley stares weirdly at what I'm guessing is Dez for a moment before shaking her head and finishing her sentence. "Next up is Dez and Trish De La Rosa!" Ashley exclaims. Heh, it kind of sounds like they're married and, instead of taking Dez's last name, they took Trish's. Ashley runs off stage as Dez and Trish run on.

They're both wearing pirate costumes.

This ought to be good.

**Sorry I haven't updated in forever! It's just school and family and homework and... Omg, I had this homework packet for Algebra. EIGHT. FREAKING. PAGES. I was working on it every night. It drove me insane. Sorry this chapter is so late and short. I was gonna put the whole talent show in this chapter, but then I wouldn't have known where to stop it. And then I'd have one more thing to write and that would be in chapter eleven. You know what that means. Eleven chapters. Period. And then I would go mad because of the uneven amount of chapters and I'd build a panic room and go down there with a Barbie doll that has about three tufts of hair and I'd pet those three tufts of hair until they fell out and then I'd end up dying down there.**

**And we don't want that to happen, do we?**

**Because I know as well as you do that you all want me to finish The Next Summer. And I can't finish TNS if I'm dead, can I? No, siree, I cannot. So I stopped this chapter there. And I'll finish the talent show in the next chapter and I'll put something else in another chapter so that we can have an even amount of chapters and I won't go mad. Then everyone shall be happy and Santa won't have to die. OKAY. :D**

**OMG I HAD AN AWESOME DAY AT SCHOOL TODAY SO I BEGGED MY MOM TO BRING ME TO MCDONALD'S (the library is closed on Monday) SO I COULD UPDATE. So, pretty much, if I update, you know I either had an awesome day at school or I had to some crap to do on Edmodo (it's some kind of website for school; I hadn't heard of it until this year).**

**Ausllymoon, yeah, that's what I meant. There was a typo somewhere else, too (or a missing word). I can't remember where it was, but I don't know if anyone caught it. Silently hoping they didn't... xD**

**Princess-Girl12, yes, ma'am. Feel. My missing word has been found by you and Ausllymoon. xD**

**TotallyNOTaWizard, DON'T IGNORE CLASS. YOU NEED THIS FOR LIIIIFE. Lol, just kidding. Keep ignoring. Keep reading. Keep writing. Keep drawing. Keep doing whatever you do when you ignore your teacher. They're pretty much just telling you a revised version of what you learned last year anyway, am I right? And correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm getting a strong feeling that you actually are a wizard... Hm... And you probably don't care, but there's this boy at my new school and, every day in the cafeteria, he ends up in front of me in line even though he was behind me when we came in from rec. Today, I finally said something about it and I accused him of being a wizard. He was just like "O.O O.o" and I was like "O.O :O" and I thought of you. Just an average school day.**

**Review!**

**pls.**

**LoVe, KeNzIe**

**P.S. I'm definitely updating tomorrow. I'm gonna upload the next chapter while I'm here and update TFMAMI... A! WW?! from my phone. (Don't ya LERV********acronyms?)**

**P.P.S. Y'all better feel special. I'm using up my phone data for you guys.**

**P.P.P.S. I love you!**


	11. Chapter 11

"I'm Dez!" Dez exclaims.

"And I'm Trish!"

"And we're gonna reenact a scene from...!" Dez starts.

"... one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies!" Trish finishes.

That may be one of the scariest things I've ever seen in my entire life. Dez and Trish each brandish the unsheathe their plastic swords and pretend to fight with each other for about five minutes. About halfway through, I start laughing. It isn't long after that Dez and Trish also start laughing. They keep fighting, but it's less intimidating with smiles on their faces.

When they finally finish, they actually have to crawl off the stage. They'd fallen to the ground, clutching their stomachs with laughter. They were laughing too hard to even stand up. I don't think anyone else understood the humor, besides the three of us. Maybe even Austin, if he's watching from backstage.

Ashley announces two more performers before it's finally Austin's turn. "And now we have Austin Moon performing two self-written songs with Zack Smith, Steve Johnson, and Alexandria Cook!"

Alex quickly runs out and says into the microphone, "It's Alex! Alex, not Alexandria. _Never_ call me Alexandria or you die." Ashley looks afraid. "You get a warning this time," Alex says to her and she goes to sit down at the drums that were just wheeled out. Steve and Zack walk out as well, Zack carrying a keyboard and a keyboard stand and Steve carrying a bass guitar. Austin walks out last, carrying a red electric guitar.

Wait, I thought Austin was the only one whose name was written on the sign-up sheet. He must've asked if he could add a few more people.

Wait another minute, did Ashley just say _two_ self-written songs? I only wrote him one though! She must've gotten it wrong on accident. Yeah, that must be it.

Austin walks up to the microphone, his guitar on his back for now. "Um, before we start, I have a confession to make. I didn't write this first song." First song. That means there is, in fact, two songs. But who wrote the second? "My amazing fiancée," he says with ease, "Ally Dawson, wrote it. The second song, though... I did write. And I wrote it for her. Because... well, because I love her." My breath catches in my throat and I think I'm going to be sick. Austin's eyes scan the auditorium and finally rest on mine. "This first song is called Back to Life." I feel myself trembling as Austin starts the first song.

_There's a drum line in my heart beat_

_I know exactly what it's from..._

_They're turnin' off the street lamps_

_They say the day is almost done_

_There's a ringing in my ears now_

_I remember how it was..._

_The feeling we had last night_

_And it won't stop now because..._

_Everybody says, "Hey,_

_No!_

_We don't wanna see this day_

_Go!"_

_If I ever had my say so..._

_We could make this go all night_

_Night_

_Night_

_'Cause if the party is dead..._

_We can bring it back to life!_

_Yeah, we can make it through the night_

_If you listen to the words that I say_

_'Cause if the party is dead..._

_All we need is candlelight..._

_And a little bit of dynamite!_

_Everybody will get out of our way_

_I got a song stuck in my head..._

_I know exactly why it's there_

_There's a noise outside my bedroom..._

_And I don't even care_

_If I ever said, "Go..._

_Home!"_

_Everybody here would say, "Heck..._

_No!"_

_All we gotta do is just let..._

_Go_

_We can make it through the night..._

_'Cause if the party is dead..._

_We can bring it back to life!_

_Yeah, we can make it through the night_

_If you listen to the words that I say..._

_'Cause if the party is dead..._

_All we need is candlelight..._

_And a little bit of dynamite!_

_Everybody will get out of our way!_

_We can bring it back to life!_

_Yeah, we can bring it back to life!_

_'Cause I'm never gonna get these drums outta my head_

_And I'm never gonna get some sleep inside of my bed_

_And I'm sorry if "Goodnight" is something I've ever said_

_Said_

_Said_

_Said..._

_'Cause if the party is dead..._

_We can bring it back to life!_

_Yeah, we can make it through the night_

_If you listen to the words that I say..._

_'Cause if the party is dead..._

_All we need is candlelight..._

_And a little bit of dynamite..._

_Everybody will get out of our way!_

_We can bring it back to life!_

_Yeah, we can bring it back to life!_

The song ends and Austin speaks again. "This next song is called Love Like Woe." Austin takes a deep breath as they start this next song. Then he finds me again, smiles slightly, and starts singing.

_I'm thinkin', baby, you and I are..._

_Undeniable_

_But I'm findin' our love's..._

_Unreliable_

_I'm givin' all the goods to make you stay_

_Or am I just a roadblock in your way?_

_'Cause you're a pretty little windstorm..._

_O-On the boulevard_

_Something like a sunset_

_Oh, you're a shooting star_

_And I might drive myself insane_

_If those lips aren't speakin' my name!_

_'Cause I got some intuition_

_Or maybe I'm superstitious_

_But I think you're a pretty sweet pill that I'm swallowin' down_

_To counter this addiction_

_You got me on a mission_

_Tell me, darling, can I get a break somehow..._

_Could I..._

_Say no?_

_She's got a love like woe_

_Whoa, oh, whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh_

_Whoa, oh, whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh_

_I kinda feel like it don't make sense_

_Because you're bringin' me in_

_And now you're kickin' me out again_

_Love so strong..._

_And you've moved on_

_Now I'm hung up in suspense..._

_Because you're bringin' me in_

_And now you're kickin' me out again_

_It's like a hurricane_

_Speed train_

_She's a moving car_

_Catch her in the fast lane_

_Oh, I gotta know_

_Can I keep up with her pace?_

_Kick it into gear when I see that face_

_You can take up all my time 'cause_

_You're the only one_

_That can make a storm cloud break_

_Pullin' up the sun_

_Can I get caught in your rays?_

_Can I get your lips to speak my name?_

_'Cause I got some intuition_

_Or maybe I'm superstitious_

_But I think you're a pretty sweet pill that I'm swallowin' down_

_To counter this addiction_

_You got me on a mission_

_Tell me, darling, can I get a break somehow..._

_Could I..._

_Say no?_

_She's got a love like woe_

_Girl's got a love like woe_

_Whoa, oh, whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh_

_Whoa, oh, whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh_

_I kinda feel like it don't make sense_

_'Cause you're bringin' me in_

_And now you're kickin' me out again_

_Love so strong_

_And you've moved on_

_Now I'm hung up in suspense_

_'Cause you're bringin' me in_

_And now you're kickin' me out again_

_Because we..._

_Only have one life..._

_The timing and the moment..._

_All seem so right_

_So would you say you're..._

_Mine?_

_We'll be just fine..._

_Would you say you're..._

_Mine?_

_We'll be just fine!_

_She's got a love like woe_

_Girl's got a love like woe_

_Whoa, oh, whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh_

_Whoa, oh, whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh_

_I kinda feel like it don't make sense_

_'Cause you're bringin' me in_

_And now you're kickin' me out again_

_Love so strong_

_And you've moved on_

_Now I'm hung up in suspense_

_'Cause you're bringin' me in_

_And now you're kickin' me out again_

_She's got a love like woe_

_Girl's got a love like woe_

_Whoa, oh, whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh_

_Whoa, oh, whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh_

_I kinda feel like it don't make sense_

_'Cause you're bringin' me in_

_And now you're kickin' me out again_

_Love so strong_

_And you've moved on_

_Now I'm hung up in suspense_

_'Cause you're bringin' me in_

_And now you're kickin' me out again_

**Austin's POV: **(You're OMGing right now, aren't you? i see u.)

I look for Ally's face for confirmation on whether or not it was good but I don't see her. She must've run off about halfway through the song. I knew I shouldn't have sung it. Or even wrote it in the first place! I probably confused the hell out of her. First, I tell her it isn't real. Then I tell her I love her and that I wrote a song about how she sends me mixed signals as well. But I could've sworn she said, "I love you," after I got out of the car yesterday. Before she got out to call her mom. I guess I was just hearing what I wanted to.

I sigh and turn around as the whole auditorium applauds. "You guys were awesome!" I say to Alex, Steve, and Zack, trying to sound enthusiastic. "I have to go now, but I'll see you later!"

I run offstage and down the stairs into the hallway. There are a few people out here who left the talent show early, getting books from their locker and walking outside. The talent show ran a lot longer than we thought it would and the school day is almost over. Ashley told us that the bell would ring soon after the talent show was over and that we wouldn't even get to go to our last period class.

"Hey, Austin, you were great!" A couple of people in the hallway said that as I walked by them. I smiled and nodded, but didn't say anything. I just want to go home. Oh, wait, can I even go home? Ally probably went ahead without me. I don't have a car here to drive either. I'll just call my mom.

I grab my books out of my locker quickly and go ahead to the parking lot. Hold on. There's Lester's truck, the one Ally drove to school this morning. Our parents all car-pooled to work in my dad's car. That means Ally's still here. Confused, I turn around and walk back inside. After walking down two hallways that she isn't on (and even checking her last period class), I walk back down the hall that leads to the auditorium. As I walk past a supply closet, the door opens and someone grabs me, pulling me inside and closing the door.

Lips are on mine moments later. My eyes are open for only a few seconds before I close them and kiss the girl back. Kiss Ally back. She tangles her fingers in my hair and pulls my head down harder on hers. I drop my books as I wrap my arms around her waist, turning whatever space was left between us to nothing. Ally jumps up and puts her legs around my waist. I stumble back against the wall and I feel Ally smile against my lips.

My heart skips a beat. I can barely breathe. Ally breathes in, taking my breath away. She moans a little and I know the cinnamon is intoxicating her. She breathes out, pushing air down my wind pipe and into my lungs. I taste/smell strawberries and it's my turn to moan. And I realize: It's Ally's scent.

Ever since I met Ally, I've had this strange addiction to strawberries. The smell, the taste. I could never get enough. Every time I was near Ally, I smelt the strawberries and I'd pretty much kill myself, if it was what Ally desired. Because her strawberry fragrance would cloud up my brain. Thankfully, Ally would get drunk on my scent first so she'd never make me do anything. And plus, she didn't figure it out like I did.

But now I understand. My cinnamon smell gets Ally high. Ally's strawberry smell gets me high. We're one and the same. Ally's been addicted since we first met too. I remember, that morning before my family and I went to her house, I ate a three-foot stack of cinnamon-flavored pancakes.

Ally pulls away from me and catches her breath. I remember her saying once about how you can't breathe the same air for a long time or you'll die. She said that, when you breathe, you take the oxygen (or the carbon dioxide, something like that) out of the air and breathe out whatever's left. So, if you breathe in the same air, you're really just breathing in that left-over stuff and your body isn't getting what it really needs out of the air.

And here I was, thinking we'd never actually use science in real life.

Well, I'm not using science, but it helped to know that fact.

As Ally catches her breath, I kiss her neck. I'm an athlete so it's easier for me to keep my heart rate under control... Well, I can't necessarily keep my heart rate under control around Ally, but I can manage to keep my breathing steady.

"Austin," Ally says into my ear, making me shiver a bit. She keeps her fingers in my hair and leans her head back a little.

"Hm?" I say against her neck, still breathing in her strawberries.

"Your song. It was amazing," she says. "Did you really write it?"

I smile and continue to kiss her neck. It isn't every day you hear a professional songwriter tell you that a song you wrote is amazing. "Mhm," I tell her, not wanting to seem overly excited.

"Austin, stop," she says suddenly, seriously. I pull away from her and look her in the eye. "Are you sure it's real?"

"I know why you're asking that," I say. "Last time you asked, I said no. But... I didn't really mean it. I was afraid of what you might say. I had to lie and get out of there as fast as I can." I smile a little. "But now I know, Ally. I, Austin Monica Moon, do, in fact, love you. And I always will. No one can change that," I whisper.

Ally blushes and smiles as well. And I know she remembers that day where we were having our fake "I Love You" war. What she doesn't know is that I meant every single word I said. There was nothing fake about it.

"But you never told me whether you thought it was real or not," I remind her.

"I love you more than you'll ever love me," she whispers back. "Girls can do anything guys can do, but girls can just do it better." My smile gets wider and hers does too. "I was afraid too, Austin. When that person in the cafeteria asked me if I really loved you, I panicked. I mean, inside, I thought, 'Yes. I do love him.' But outside, I couldn't make myself say it. I'm sorry if I upset you. It scared me a little when you ran out of there."

"It did upset me," I tell her. "I mean, the love of my life just said she hated me. What did you expect me to do? Smile and laugh it off? But it's okay. Because we both know how the other feels now. And this is the moment where we live happily ever after, right?"

Ally giggles. "Right."

"I've been waiting my whole life for this moment." And I kiss her. The door opens and Ronnie the janitor walks in. "Do you mind?" I ask, pulling away from Ally. "We're kind of having a moment in here..."

"Sorry," he says. "Just don't get you-know-what all over my supplies. Last time that happened, I had to get brand-new supplies. And it came out of _my_ wallet!"

"Ronnie, that's sick," I tell him. I try not to laugh. "Why would we do that now if we're getting married soon anyway? It'll be even more special after that." I smile down at Ally.

"Oh, yeah, you two are getting married," Ronnie says. "I heard about that. Congratulations. Have fun and don't mess it up. Either of you. Marriage is a wonderful thing if you play your cards right."

"Thanks for the advice, Ronnie," Ally says. "But we're gonna go now. So you don't have to worry about your supplies getting..." She just shakes her head and I set her down. I pick up my books and we leave the supply closet. We walk out to the truck and I put my guitar in the backseat. We climb inside and Ally turns the truck on.

"Ally, I have something to tell you," I say. She looks at me. "Don't hate me," I add quickly.

"I think we're past me hating you," she tells me. I nod and take my wallet out. I find the right card and, with a deep breath, I hand it to her. "What could be so... _Austin Monica Moon!_" she screams. "You've been making me drive you around when you've had your license since... since your sixteenth birthday?! Austin!"

"I thought you said you weren't gonna hate me!" I exclaim.

"I don't hate you!" she says. "I'm just disappointed. What was the point of making me drive you around when you had your driver's license already?"

I shrug and shrink down in my seat, not wanting her to murder me. "I dunno," I say, hating it when I sound like a small child. I do that a lot for some reason. I guess I just can't help it. I feel Ally's hand on my head as she kisses the top of it.

"It's fine," she says, "really. But you're going to be driving a lot more now."

"I don't know if I remember how to," I tell her, laughing a little. "I've been pretending I failed my test for over a year now. And I kept telling my mom that my permit expired so she would stop trying to make me drive. Plus, I'm too lazy to drive. Please don't make me do it!"

She turns her head to me, ready to tell me a hundred and one reasons why I should want to. I place my hand on the back of her neck and pull her to me, kissing her deeply, breathing out as much as possible. I pull away. Ally licks her lip and nods.

"O-Okay, you don't have to drive," she says. I laugh. Ally shifts gears and presses down on the gas. We lurch forward and almost run right into the car in front of us.

I quickly unbuckle my seat belt and run around to the driver's side of the car, opening the door. "All right, you talked me into it," I say. "Get into the passenger seat. I'm driving." She laughs and slides over to the other side of the car. And, for the first time in a little over a year, I drive. I drive home. I was a little rusty but, thankfully, I didn't crash us into a tree.

**Boo! Did I scares you?! Doubt it. Anyhoodles, told you I'd update today! I'm writing this on Monday, so if I end up not updating on Tuesday, I'm gonna look really stupid... Hopefully, I get to update Tuesday. ANYHOODLES, I'm moving back home (where I have WiFi) so I'll have no excuse for not updating! I'm moving back Sunday so if I don't start having a regular thing going again, it's just because I'm terrible at keeping up with things now. But just wait. Everything will be back to normal when summer comes. :)**

**LoVe, KeNzIe**

**P.S. I'll try to update tomorrow. (Or the day after today, whatever today is)**


	12. Chapter 12

**Ohp, wedding, enjoy, lovelies, bye bye. :)**

"Moms," Austin and I say, holding hands and sitting across from them. I raise my eyebrows at Austin, who points at me with his free hand, telling me I should say it.

"We want to talk about some details for the wedding," I say.

Our moms look at each other and squeal like two young teenage girls. "We've been waiting for this for a long time! What date were you thinking about? We need to know how much time we have to plan," Mimi says.

Austin and I look at each other. "Uh, I don't know..." Austin says. "I know you want us to get married soon though."

"How about we just work on the wedding and then choose a date when we get everything in order?" Mom suggests.

"Sounds good to me," I say.

"Me, too," Austin agrees.

"All right," my mom says. "We're going to tell you everything we've already talked about. Feel free to change anything."

And we spend the next two weeks planning. On the third week, we actually make the calls and get everything set up and ready. Today, my mom is taking me to pick out my gown. My dad, who's usually wanting to save as much money as possible, is allowing her to take me to an expensive shop since it's my "special day."

Gosh, I never thought that day would come. And I never thought I'd be getting married to Austin Moon. And most of all, I never thought I'd enjoy marrying Austin Moon.

Wow, I'm actually in love with Austin Moon...

I shake my head to clear the thought and gaze around at all of the beautiful dresses. "Whoa," I whisper. I walk slowly through the aisles, examining each and every one of the dresses carefully. I find myself wondering which one Austin might like the best. And then I see it. In my mind, of course.

"Mom, I know which dress I want," I tell her.

"Which one?" she asks. "Let's go try it on."

"I already know it fits," I say.

"How?" she asks. I turn to her and smile.

"You know which dress I'm talking about," I say. Over the summer, my mom and I were putting on a little fashion show because it was raining and we had nothing else to do. My mom thought it would be fun if I tried on her wedding dress, as long as I was careful not to spill anything on it or rip it. It fit perfectly and my mom almost cried, saying over and over again how beautiful I looked in it.

My dad told me to take it off. He said that boys might swarm the house, asking me to marry them. I laughed, but my mom didn't. She and Mimi had probably been talking about Austin and I getting married then.

"Can I, Mom?" I ask. "Please, please, please! It'd save money and that's my favorite dress in the whole world!"

"Of course you can, honey!" she exclaims, hugging me tightly. "You looked so beautiful in that dress... But what are we going to do with the money your father gave us?"

"Accessories!" I say and we run off to my dad's truck so that we can drive to the mall.

* * *

Today's the day. My special day. It's odd to think that only about five weeks ago, I hated the love of my life. I'm in the church where we'll get married later. I'm supposed to be getting ready but I had to look at the decorations. Had to make sure everything was perfect.

There are red and yellow flowers everywhere. The only white flowers are above the alter, where I can already see Austin and I kissing ourselves into marriage. I lean up against the church pews, not even caring how everything looks anymore. It's perfect. Nothing more, nothing less. I retie my robe's string thing, tightening it.

"Hey," someone says, walking up behind me and putting their arms around my waist. They—also known as Austin Moon—rests his chin on my shoulder.

"Hi," I say, smiling.

"Aren't you supposed to be getting ready?" he murmurs, pulling my robe down a little and kissing my shoulder.

"Yes," I say. "Well, what about you? You're supposed to be getting ready too." I giggle, pushing his head away from my shoulder gently.

"I'm ready," he tells me. I turn around and look at him. He's wearing a black suit with a bright red flower in his chest pocket. "How do I look?" he asks, doing a little spin for me.

"The flower is a nice touch," I tell him. "My favorite color. But... your hair..."

"What about it?" he asks, reaching up quickly and trying to smooth it down. "What's wrong with it?"

"No, Austin, stop," I say. He drops his hands to his sides. I place my hand on his head and ruffle his hair. "Much better," I say.

He just smiles. "My mom's gonna kill me if she sees my hair like this," he points out, "you know that, right?" He puts his hand on the small of my back and leans down to kiss me. But I lean away from him.

"Ah, ah, ah, not before the wedding," I say. He frowns. I pull his head down and kiss the top of it. "Later," I tell him. "Now if you'd like to see me in my beautiful wedding dress, I suppose you let me go get dressed."

"All right," he says, "I'll see you later then."

"Love you," I say.

His smile gets wider. "Love you, too," he replies. I start to walk away but he grabs my arm. "One little kiss? Pleeeease!"

"Fine," I say. I pull my arm away from him and wrap both around his neck. Once our lips are a few inches away, I wiggle out of his grasp and run away from him. "Later!" I call to him and I laugh quietly. Mimi, Mom, and Trish are staring at me.

"Where have you been?" Mom asks.

"I was checking everything out," I tell them. "It all looks amazing, by the way."

Mimi and my mom murmur their thanks and quickly set to work with me. When we're about to put my dress on, I remember something. "Wait!" I cry out.

"What is it, Ally?" Trish asks. "We're on a bit of a tight schedule!"

"Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue!" I exclaim.

"What?" Mimi asks.

"I need something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue," I tell them.

"Uh... Okay, the dress is old, your bow is new," she points to the yellow bow sitting on the counter, "and you can borrow my shoes! It can be your something borrowed _and_ your something blue! Is that okay?"

I hesitate and remember that it's almost time for the wedding. "Sure," I say.

"All right, come on," she says. "Let's get you into your dress."

* * *

After we're done, I look in the mirror.

My hair is straight at the top and my hair from my ears down is in curls. There is a large yellow bow holding my bangs out of my face. The dress is beautiful and looks as if it's brand new. It's so white that it's almost blinding. It's strapless and has a sweetheart neckline. At my waist, it stops hugging me and flares out. It has a medium-length train trailing behind it. Also on my waist, there's a kind of pin that looks like a bunch of small, silver bells. **(1)** But they aren't really bells. They're just decorations. And the blue heels my mom let me borrow are on my feet.

I stare at the train behind me and worry about tripping over it. Then I wonder what would happen if all of my pins and bows and things fell out my hair. And what if I mess up on my vows? I thought I had them committed to memory, but I can't remember one word now.

"Ally, you look amazing," Trish tells me.

I smile. "Thanks," I say. "So do you." She's wearing a dark purple dress that reaches her ankles with black high heels.

"I can't believe you're getting married," she says, tears welling up in her eyes. Now everyone's about to cry. They smother me in hugs.

"Guys, guys, you're gonna make me cry too, stop," I say. They pull away from me and apologize. "It's okay." I hear the wedding song playing. "Well, that's my cue." They help me put my veil on and then everyone rushes into the church to take their places and I walk out to the front. My dad is there waiting for me. Tears rush down his face silently.

"My little girl," he says. "You look..." He ends his sentence with a quiet sob.

"Dad," I say, telling him with my eyes not to try and talk or he'll cry more. I hug him then loop my arm through his. "Come on. Let's go."

We open the tall, white double-doors and walk through them. I see Austin, waiting for me at the alter. Dez is next to him, wearing a purple suit, probably at Trish's request. Suddenly, it's just Austin and I in the room. It's as if everything else went dark and there are spotlights on just the two of us now. He was smiling but now his mouth is forming an O. I see his lips mouth the word "Wow." I blush a little and my dad and I begin our walk.

And then I remember something: My bouquet! I forgot it in the changing room. Ah, shoot! Whatever. Just try not to mess anything else up and we'll be fine. We reach the alter and my dad hesitantly lets go of my arm.

"Take care of my little girl," Dad says, trying to look stern through his tears.

"I promise I will, sir," Austin replies. He takes my hands and looks deeply into my eyes. "You look beautiful," he whispers to me. "Love the bow." He chuckles quietly as he looks at it. And the ceremony begins. It seems to take forever for the priest to tell us we can say our vows.

"The bride and groom have prepared their own vows," he says.

As soon as the words leave his mouth, I wish he would've taken longer to say it. The priest looks at Austin, silently telling him to go first. Austin takes a deep breath and begins. "Ally... I love you. You may not know this, but... I pretty much have loved you ever since we first met. When our parents told us we should get married, I was ecstatic. Are you proud of me? I used a big word," he says. I giggle and nod. "Anyway, when I said I'd been waiting my whole life to kiss you, I meant it. And my heart was racing during every second my lips were on yours. Every time I'm around you, I have a mini heart attack and you take my breath away. Without you, I never would have been able to write that song. Or any song, for that matter. I know this sounded corny, but it came from my heart and I love you."

I smile, wanting to kiss him right then. The priest looks at me. Ally's turn. Uh, oh. I look up into Austin's eyes... and remember every single words. "I have something to confess to our parents. Five weeks ago, I hated you." Everyone gasps. Austin swallows and looks down a little. I take one of my hands out of his and use it to lift his chin up. "Don't worry. I love you now." He smiles and his eyes sparkle. "I hated you. Then we started spending more time together and... well... I slowly fell for you. And I'm glad I did, because, if I hadn't, we'd have gone on living our sad, pathetic lives alone. You'd still be getting cheated on and I'd still be getting stalked. But now we're together and... you'll always be my Aiden."

Austin smiles and, when the priest says to, slides my wedding band onto my left ring finger. And I slide his onto his left ring finger. "You may now kiss the bride." Austin pushes my veil back, his hand lingering a moment or two on my bow. We put our hands and arms in the usual places: My arms around his neck, his hands on my waist. And we kiss each other deeply. We pull away and everyone claps and cheers. We take a few pictures and walk back down the aisle. holding hands. We decided we weren't going to have a dinner after the wedding. I mean, why buy a whole bunch of food that no one's going to eat? People begin filing out behind us.

"I'm gonna go change," I tell Austin. He smiles, nods, and I walk to the changing room and where Trish and my mom help me out of the wedding dress. Once I'm out, Trish leaves. Something about Dez. I slide into my after-wedding dress (a red, knee-length dress with a V-neck and short sleeves.) We're going to dinner at a restaurant of Austin and I's choice.

I walk outside, smiling to myself. Reality just hit me and I'm happy about it. _I am Mrs. Ally Marie Moon. I am no longer a Dawson, but a Moon._ I look up, eyes searching for Austin... and it's like I'm being punched in the stomach. Everyone's already cleared out, in their cars or already starting their drive home. Dad and... Dad-In-Law (it's going to take me a while to get used to something like that) are still in the Men's dressing room, probably gathering their things. Mom and... Mom-In-Law (I think I'll just call them Mom #2 and Dad#2) are in the Women's dressing room, probably trying to figure out how to get the wedding dress back home. And I think Trish and Dez are inside the church.

But _Austin_. _Austin Monica Moon_ is out here, _kissing Cassidy_. Her arms are around his neck (that's _my_ usual place, you bitch) and Austin's hand are on her waist. They aren't on the small of her back, but they're resting on the sides of her body. Tears well up in my eyes. My mom thought I'd get emotional so they put water-proof mascara on me. Well, I got emotional, but these aren't tears of joy. I fall to my knees and dig my fingers into the dirt. _Damn it, Ally, you should've known. He's a jerk. That's all he is. Not the lovable, childish, adorable, sweet, romantic Austin you thought he was. A jerk. That's all he was, all he is, and all he'll ever be._

I stand up and start to walk away. God, these heels are kidding me. I take them off and throw them to the ground. My mom will probably see them and pick them up when she comes out.

"Hey!" I hear Cassidy call out. "Don't shove me! That's rude, Austin!"

"Ally, wait!" Austin cries. "It's not what it looks like, I swear! She—"

"Austin, don't," I say. "Just don't." I wipe my tears and continue walking.

"Ally, no, I'm not going to 'don't.' That didn't make any sense but you know what I'm talking about!" he exclaims. "Ally, I love _you_. I married _you_. I'm going to—Would you get off of me?" Austin seemed to just realize that Cassidy was clinging to his waist. He wiggles out of her grasp and walks toward me. "I'm going to spend the rest of my life with _you._ Not Cassidy. You know how strong she is. She was holding me to her. I couldn't get away. But when I heard your shoes hit the ground, I knew it was you. I got a burst of adrenaline. Ally, you have to believe me."

"Why do you want her to believe you when _we_ can be together?" Cassidy asks. "Come here." I don't even watch as she kisses him again. Suddenly, I hear a slapping noise instead of a kissing sound. I know Austin didn't hit her. He's above hitting a girl, I know. I open my eyes and see Trish with her hand hovering over Cassidy, about to slap her again.

"Would you like to do the honors, Ally?" Trish asks me. She puts Cassidy in a headlock. "Come on, punch her just once."

I'm going to enjoy this. I walk over to her. I raise my fist as Cassidy tries to get out of Trish's grasp. I hesitate, never having punched anyone before besides Austin. But I have good reason. "This is for cheating on Austin," I say firmly and I punch her cheek, making her head snap to the left. "And this is for kissing my husband." I raise my hand again and slap her head back to the right. I feel kind of bad for hitting her, but she deserved it. "Now get out of here!" I shout. Trish lets her go and Cassidy runs through the parking lot.

"We're okay, right?" Austin asks me, sliding an arm around my waist.

"I dunno," I tease. "Maybe if you give me a kiss." I tap my cheek. He grins, shakes his head, and kisses my lips.

"For you, my wife," he says, taking the flower from his pocket and placing it in my hand.

"Thank you, my husband," I say. "And for you." I take the bow from my hair, watching my bangs fall back into my eyes, and tie it in his hair, making him look like a retard who just escaped from a mental hospital. "You look lovely."

"Thank you," he says, kissing my cheek. "Let's go." He holds his arm out to me and I loop mine through it. "You coming, Trish? It's free for you!"

"Yeah, hold on," she says. "_Dez! Get your butt out here!_"

Dez comes running out of the church. His hair is ruffled and his cheeks are flushed. "Yeah?" he says.

"We're going out to eat with the newlyweds," she tells him. "Come on."

"Okay," he says. He walks up to Trish. I take Austin's hand. He smiles down at me. Trish and I walk in the middle of Austin and Dez.

"You know, Ally," she whispers to me, "maybe Dez does look a little like Dan." I grin and nudge her. She blushes slightly. "Oh! I made something for you two!" She opens up her purple purse, which I hadn't noticed before, and pulls out two T-shirts. She looks at the fronts then hands one to me and one to Austin. "Put them on!" Without question, I pull mine over my head. It points to Trish and says _This Dork Is My Husband_.

"When did we get married?" I ask her. She laughs and leads me over to the other side of Austin so that it points to him. "Ohhhh!" I giggle. Austin takes off the jacket of his suit and hands it to Dez. Then he takes off his tie and his white shirt, handing it to Dez as well. He pulls his shirt on and stands next to me. His shirt says _This Dork Is My Wife_ and points to me.

I laugh. "Thanks, Trish, they're awesome," I tell her.

"Aw, you're welcome," she says. "They were expensive though! Like, ten bucks each."

"Why'd you have to take off your shirt and your jacket?" I ask Austin.

"Because my jacket and shirt isn't as thin as the top of your dress," he tell me, taking a bit of it between his fingers. He stares at it for a few extra moments. "But it's good that it's thin," he says with a smirk. He kisses me and I smile, kissing him back.

"Oh, get a room, you dorks!" Trish exclaims and she and Dez walk off.

Austin pulls away from me but keeps his forehead on mine. "Tonight?" he murmurs staring into my eyes.

"Eighteen," I tell him.

"Ally," he whines. "Tonight."

"Austin," I mock him. "Eighteen."

"But when you turn eighteen, we have to wait an extra month until I turn eighteen. It'll be illegal on _your_ birthday," he tells me. "But it's totally legal right now because we're married. Tonight?"

I laugh. "Maybe."

"I'm just kidding," he says. "If you want to wait, we can wait."

I hesitate. "If you can woo me... then maybe tonight," I wink at him and start walking to the car.

He lingers in his spot for a moment before running after me. "Tonight? Maybe? Really?" he asks. I laugh and don't answer him. "What—?"

"Shh," I say to him, putting my finger on his lips.

"Yes, ma'am," he says.

"Oh, shut up," I say, rolling my eyes and laughing.

About thirty minutes later, we're sitting at a large round table in some fancy restaurant. Austin squeezes my hand as my Mom asks the awkward question: "So, what are the newlyweds going to do on their first night of marriage?"

I laugh. "Sleep," I tell her. "It's been a bit of an exhausting day. I started stressing right when I walked into the dressing room. All I need is a massage and a good night's sleep. Maybe tomorrow will be a redo of our first night as a married couple."

"You know," Austin says, "I'm an imaginarily licensed masseuse." I glance at him just in time to see him wink. I giggle quietly.

* * *

Austin and I lie in my bed, my head on his chest. "Austin?" I ask, hoping he's still awake.

"Hmm?" he murmurs sleepily. "You want that massage now?"

Huh, I'd almost forgot about that. "Well, yeah," I tell him. He sits up.

"Hold on." He walks to my bathroom and I hear the water running. I think Austin's splashing water on his face. He comes back and turns the lamp that rests on my side table on. He sits down and I sit down in his lap. He places his hands on my shoulders and begins performing magic. I moan.

"Oh, my God," I say, letting my head fall back onto his shoulder. He kisses my cheek and smiles. "Oh, but, um, I was going to ask..." I take a deep breath. "Um, you promised you'd tell me about your dreams. And I thought... maybe you're ready now?"

"Ally..."

"Don't tell me you aren't ready," I say, pulling away from his amazing hands. "We've been through so much. We fell in love. We're married. I dreamed about you when I didn't even think I was in love with you—_and_ I told you about it!" I turn around and look him in the eye. Now please... just tell me what you dream about..."

He sighs. "I wake up every night... screaming my head off. My parents think I'm having night terrors. The only time I don't scream is when I'm sleeping with you in my arms..."

"Actually, you do," I tell him. "Wait, do you mean screaming as in, actually screaming? Or screaming as in, screaming words?"

"Actually screaming," he says.

"Oh. Well, one morning when you spent the night, you told Dallas to let me go because I was yours," I say. "And I wasn't even technically yours then."

"No, I wake up screaming," he says. "And I always dream about... losing you. They vary... Sometimes, Dallas kidnaps you and by the time I get there to save you, you're... gone. Sometimes, you just... die. Once..." Austin chuckles a little. "Once, you just grew beautiful angel wings and... flew away. I didn't scream that night. I just... cried."

"You cried?" I ask, smiling. "That's cute." I kiss him briefly.

"Either way, I always lose you," he tells me. "I've been having nightmares about losing you for about six or seven years now..."

"Geez, really?" I ask. "I... That... That's so sweet. I'll never leave you. And I'm sure I can take Dallas any time of the week. And if I ever grow angel wings and leave, then I'll come back down to Earth and kill you so that we can be together again." I smile. "I promise. I love you."

"You're the best, Ally," Austin says, turning me back around and continuing to massage my shoulders. "I love you too."

"You really should be a masseuse though," I tell him. "This is amazing." I moan.

"You're the only one I'm gonna massage though," Austin says, laughing quietly.

"I hope you never have bad dreams again," I say. "We're together. And we're perfectly happy. Now let's go to sleep."

Austin kisses my shoulder, turns the lamp off, and lies down beside me. Austin laughs in my ear and I shiver, feeling his cinnamon-y breath run down my neck. "Tonight?" I laugh with him. But this is another story for another time.

******IMPORTANTE AUTHOR'S NOTE!**** (Really, you just need to read the P.S., the Random Update, and Another Update.)**

**Launi9, good. Maybe if the one I'm about to go to ever starts using it, you can explain to me how it works. 'Cause it's confusing to me. xD**

**Guest (Hello), Thank you, thank you, thank you for reminding me about Austin's dreams. I forgot all about that! But now I've written it out and I feel much better. Don't hate me for forgetting please!**

**Guest (Stephani-chibi), *cough, cough, cough* I KNOW THE STORY DOESN'T SEEM LIKE IT'S FINISHED BECAUSE IT ISN'T FINISHED BECAUSE SEQUEL *cough, cough, cough***

**Austin and Ally Go 1 Direction, I remember when you posted this review. (Sorry that I didn't put this in Chapter 12. I meant to but I forgot.) I read the first sentence and was like, "-_- Oh, yay, someone's going to criticize me again." And I almost didn't finish reading it. But something urged me to and it really made my day. I figured you were going to tell me it was a stupid topic and that I failed miserably at writing it. But I'm really glad you liked the story and I hope you continue to read my stories! :D**

**1. So, as you saw, I put the wedding dress Ally was wearing as the cover of this story. And I have no idea what that woman has on her waist, but they looked like bells to me. If you know what they are and I'm not even close, then oh well. I mean, you can correct me if you'd like. And I'll probably end up changing that up there to whatever it really is.**

**So, sorry it's been forever, but hey, I had to make it SPESHUL. I tried to make it as long and special as I could, but I had trouble ending it so that's why the ending is all weird and Austin's all sexual and, yeah, I'm pretty annoyed with how I ended it. Like, halfway through the story, I had the perfect way to end it, but I made the mistake of not writing it down and I forgot it. Ugh. Anyhoodles, lemme know if you like it. And if you think of a better ending, put it in a review. I'll put it in here as an alternate ending or something. xD**

**LoVe, KeNzIe**

**P.S. Sorry that it's taken me so long to upload this. I finished it the other day, but I had to find something that I could combine photos with so that I could put it as the cover for this story. If I hadn't been able to, then that thingy up there wouldn't have made sense and there'd have been so many questions and ugh. Anyhoodles, it's up now and you can see Ally's wedding outfit: The bow (and I know that you can't tie back bangs like that but if you stick a bobby pin on the back, then BAM, it's a pin AND a bow), Ally's hairstyle, Ally's (and Penny's) wedding dress (I don't know if you can see the top of it but it has no straps and a kind of m-shaped top), and the shoes she borrowed from her mom. When I uploaded the picture, a little bit of the bottom got cut off, but you aren't really missing anything. There's a short train on the dress and that's the only part you can't see. And I'm sure you can imagine what the bottom of the shoes look like. I feel like I'm forgetting something, but oh, well. Enjoy.**

**Random Update: I'd have put this as an author's note in a new chapter, but it would've been a waste and there'd be thirteen chapters. ANYHOODLES, this is the last chapter. I wouldn't have had trouble with the ending if this wasn't the last chapter. I probably would have ended it... I don't know, somewhere else. But guys, it's over. There's nothing you can do to change that. There might be a sequel. But maybe not. It's over, everyone. Let it be... The story has moved on and... so should you... It's over. It's just... over.**

**Another Update: I restarted the poll again so if you wanna go vote, you can. And it would be pretty helpful for you to vote on if you want another story so... yeah... xD Thanks for reading! I've enjoyed your reviews and stuff on this story and I hope to see some new (and some of the old) faces on my next story! Later, my lovelies!**


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